Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Non-Tech : Philip Morris - A Stock For Wealth Or Poverty (MO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: qcom who wrote (1484)	4/28/1998 8:01:00 PM
From: Xpiderman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6439

Can someone make comments on this news, please? Liggett to cooperate in U.S. criminal probe Tuesday April 28 6:48 PM EDT By James Vicini dailynews.yahoo.com The Justice Department said Tuesday that the nation's fifth biggest cigarette maker, Liggett Group, has agreed to cooperate in the government's criminal investigation of the tobacco industry. The first cigarette maker to break with the rest of the industry and settle state civil lawsuits, Liggett now becomes the first to agree to cooperate in the long-running probe into whether tobacco company executives lied to Congress about whether nicotine is addictive or committed any other criminal violations. "The department's agreement with Liggett contains no grant of immunity from prosecution," the Justice Department said in announcing that Liggett, a division of Brooke Group Ltd would cooperate fully in the probe. The department told Liggett in a letter it "retains full discretion" to bring appropriate criminal charges in the future against the firm, its executives or other employees. The Justice Department's criminal division said Liggett had agreed to provide "truthful, complete and accurate" information about the industry's knowledge of the health consequences of smoking cigarettes and nicotine's addictive nature. Sources close to the probe said it could provide valuable information about the four other big tobacco firms. Also Tuesday, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, chief author of a Senate tobacco bill that the cigarette makers say could bankrupt them, lashed out at the industry's advertising campaign against it. "They want to change the subject," the Arizona Republican said, adding that the companies were using "buzzwords" like "taxes" and "bureaucracy" to divert attention from health and teen smoking. After breaking with Congress on efforts to pass a bill, the industry this month launched a newspaper advertising campaign against legislation which would cost them more and give them less legal protection than the proposed deal they signed off on with 40 states suing them last June. Recently the industry has also started radio and television ads in selected markets, attacking legislation that the companies say could put them out of business, threaten up to 2 million tobacco-dependent jobs, and raise prices so high that a black market for cigarettes would emerge. But McCain said he believed the American people would not be taken in by the ads, and he would not be intimidated. "I believe the American people know this is an industry that enticed our children to use tobacco, that lied to the American people, and the American Congress," he said in a floor speech. According to the Justice Department, Liggett will provide information on how the industry targeted children and adolescents, the manipulation of nicotine, and the role of the Council for Tobacco Research, including special projects conducted under the trade group's auspices. Further, Liggett will provide information about the involvement of lawyers in crafting false or misleading statements by any of the tobacco companies to Congress, the Food and Drug Administration and American consumers, the department added. It said Liggett will "actively assist" the Justice Department's efforts to get evidence, including evidence of crime and fraud in documents that other tobacco companies insist is protected by attorney-client privilege. Liggett's parent company, Miami-based Brooke Group Ltd., is owned by Bennett LeBow. Liggett makes L&M, Lark and Chesterfield cigarettes. "More than two years ago, Liggett broke ranks with big tobacco and we have consistently pursued a policy of cooperation rather than confrontation," LeBow said in a brief statement. "We are now cooperating not only with Justice, but also with 41 states where we have settlement agreements and with numerous other parties. We intend to continue to play a constructive role in this important process," he said. In March 1996, Liggett shocked fellow cigarette makers by agreeing to settle suits brought by attorneys general trying to recoup health care costs of smokers. LeBow in 1997 became the first tobacco executive to admit nicotine is addictive. Liggett will be the second known company that has agreed to cooperate in the three-year-old investigation. In January, a California biotechnology firm, DNA Plant Technology Corp., agreed to cooperate as part of plea deal in which it admitted its guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the tobacco seed export law. Department officials said Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., the nation's third largest cigarette maker and a unit of B.A.T Industries Plc of Britain, was an unindicted co-conspirator in the alleged scheme with the California firm to develop a genetically altered tobacco plant with high nicotine.