Resistance Records had some early success, but soon butted heads with the law. On the morning of Wednesday, April 9, 1997, while the Michigan State Police were raiding Resistance Records' main offices in a rented Detroit house, the Ontario Provincial Police raided Burdi's home in Windsor, Ontario.

The raids were conducted simultaneously to avoid possible destruction of computer records. From both locations, close to 200,000 CDs and cassettes, records, computers, other merchandise and an extensive subscriber list containing as many as 5,000 names were seized. At the time, Burdi was already in jail serving a one-year sentence for kicking a female anti-racism protestor in the face at a 1993 RaHoWa concert in Ottawa, Canada.

Resistance Records was being investigated on both sides of the border: In the United States, there was an alleged discrepancy regarding proper payment of Michigan state sales tax. In Canada, Burdi and his Resistance Records co-founders, Jason Snow and Joseph Talic, were charged after a nine-month investigation, in September 1997, with willfully promoting hatred and conspiracy to promote hatred, under that country's strict hate crimes laws. (Although Burdi had originally set up shop in Michigan to avoid those laws, they were applied anyway because of his status as a Canadian citizen.)

Sentencing took Burdi out of commission and Resistance Records seemed to have an uncertain future. Publication of Resistance Magazine was placed on hold.

Next: New Owner: Willis Carto of the Liberty Lobby