The Hindu : International : Tobacco firms face high-stakes trial

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 22, 2004

International

International

Tobacco firms face high-stakes trial

WASHINGTON: In 1953, the chief executives of the leading cigarette companies and officials from a major public relations firm gathered at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. What they discussed that day and what happened over the next 50 years as a result go to the heart of the biggest legal challenge the tobacco industry has ever faced. In a non-jury trial scheduled to start here on Tuesday in Federal District Court, the Government is seeking to strip the companies — disgorgement, in legal terms — of $280 billions that Justice Department lawyers say was earned through fraud. As the largest civil case ever prosecuted under the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organizations Act, it has the potential to put the companies out of business. Company lawyers say the hotel meeting produced only a research organisation, now defunct, to study smoking and health. The Government's lawyers say the meeting led to a widespread conspiracy of deception that remains in effect, reflecting a carefully built strategy to misrepresent the addictive nature of cigarettes, lie about the health risks of secondhand smoke and direct marketing efforts at young people to sustain a large population of smokers.

New York Times News Service

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News Update

Stories in this Section

Powell blames it on misleading inputs

U.K. envoy's gaffe

U.S. strategies undermine U.N.

Appeal to Bush, Musharraf

The spirit of Kalashnikov

U.N. moots global tax to fight hunger

'Terrorism a global priority'

Linking rivers, with happy results

E.U. official to give up business

Seoul to eschew nuclear weapons

Tobacco firms face high-stakes trial

No one is above law: Kofi Annan