US government opens racketeering case against tobacco industry
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《英国医生杂志》
The US government's civil racketeering case against the tobacco industry, originally filed under the Clinton administration, finally went to trial on Tuesday in the District Court of Washington, DC.
Dr David Kessler, the former chief of the Food and Drug Administration, will be the government's first witness.
Under the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a law passed in 1970 to prosecute organised crime, the Department of Justice is charging tobacco companies with conspiring to conceal the health risks and addictive powers of cigarettes. The government is seeking the "disgorgement" of $280bn (￡156bn; 230bn) that it says the industry earned by selling cigarettes to people who got addicted before the age of 21 since the enactment of the act.
The government had also sued for the recovery of billions of dollars spent by Medicare and other federal health plans to treat smoking related illness since 1954, when the conspiracy allegedly began. US District Judge Gladys Kessler dismissed this part of the suit in 2000.
William Ohlemeyer, vice president and associate general counsel of Philip Morris USA, told reporters at a pretrial briefing last week that the government had no case. Under the "forward looking" RICO statute, according to Mr Ohlemeyer, the US government must prove that tobacco companies continue to act fraudulently and will do so in the future, but he said Philip Morris has changed its ways since signing on to the Master Settlement Agreement in 1998.
"Say what you will about the company's past, I am quite confident that we have a very persuasive defence as to what we are doing today and what we intend to do in the future," Mr Ohlemeyer said.
Under the agreement, Philip Morris and six other tobacco companies agreed to pay US states $246bn to reimburse Medicaid for treating smoking related illness, to disband industry trade groups charged with conspiring to hide the dangers of smoking, and to reform cigarette marketing.
"They would like you to believe they've changed, but they really haven't," Dr Richard Hurt, director of the Nicotine Dependence Center at the Mayo Clinic, said in an interview with the BMJ. Dr Hurt was the first state witness in the 1998 Minnesota tobacco trial, one of the suits that led to the Master Settlement Agreement.
Dr Hurt said that the industry was still engaged in deceptive practices, such as marketing cigarettes as "light" and "ultra light," and was working behind the scenes to fight legislation aimed at banning smoking in the workplace.
The government has also named five other companies as being part of the conspiracy to conceal the health risks and addictive powers of cigarettes. These are R J Reynolds, British American Tobacco, Brown and Williamson Tobacco, Lorillard Tobacco, and the Liggett Group. It also cites two industry trade groups, one of which, the Tobacco Institute, was dissolved under the terms of the Master Settlement Agreement. The case is expected to last six months.
The tobacco companies have filed an appeal challenging the government's legal authority to seek the $280bn disgorgement. A federal appeals court will hear oral arguments on the case in November.(Anne Harding)
Dr David Kessler, the former chief of the Food and Drug Administration, will be the government's first witness.
Under the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a law passed in 1970 to prosecute organised crime, the Department of Justice is charging tobacco companies with conspiring to conceal the health risks and addictive powers of cigarettes. The government is seeking the "disgorgement" of $280bn (￡156bn; 230bn) that it says the industry earned by selling cigarettes to people who got addicted before the age of 21 since the enactment of the act.
The government had also sued for the recovery of billions of dollars spent by Medicare and other federal health plans to treat smoking related illness since 1954, when the conspiracy allegedly began. US District Judge Gladys Kessler dismissed this part of the suit in 2000.
William Ohlemeyer, vice president and associate general counsel of Philip Morris USA, told reporters at a pretrial briefing last week that the government had no case. Under the "forward looking" RICO statute, according to Mr Ohlemeyer, the US government must prove that tobacco companies continue to act fraudulently and will do so in the future, but he said Philip Morris has changed its ways since signing on to the Master Settlement Agreement in 1998.
"Say what you will about the company's past, I am quite confident that we have a very persuasive defence as to what we are doing today and what we intend to do in the future," Mr Ohlemeyer said.
Under the agreement, Philip Morris and six other tobacco companies agreed to pay US states $246bn to reimburse Medicaid for treating smoking related illness, to disband industry trade groups charged with conspiring to hide the dangers of smoking, and to reform cigarette marketing.
"They would like you to believe they've changed, but they really haven't," Dr Richard Hurt, director of the Nicotine Dependence Center at the Mayo Clinic, said in an interview with the BMJ. Dr Hurt was the first state witness in the 1998 Minnesota tobacco trial, one of the suits that led to the Master Settlement Agreement.
Dr Hurt said that the industry was still engaged in deceptive practices, such as marketing cigarettes as "light" and "ultra light," and was working behind the scenes to fight legislation aimed at banning smoking in the workplace.
The government has also named five other companies as being part of the conspiracy to conceal the health risks and addictive powers of cigarettes. These are R J Reynolds, British American Tobacco, Brown and Williamson Tobacco, Lorillard Tobacco, and the Liggett Group. It also cites two industry trade groups, one of which, the Tobacco Institute, was dissolved under the terms of the Master Settlement Agreement. The case is expected to last six months.
The tobacco companies have filed an appeal challenging the government's legal authority to seek the $280bn disgorgement. A federal appeals court will hear oral arguments on the case in November.(Anne Harding)