Canadian tobacco firms fined C$1.15 billion
p2pnet news view | Off Topic:- Big Tobacco and Big Music have much in common.
Lying and denying are essential elements of their day-to-day operations; and, they’ll spend, and do, literally anything to keep their outmoded (in the case of Big Music) and deadly (in the case of Big Tobacco) ‘product’ on the shelves.
Canada’s two biggest tobacco companies hotly denied they were actively involved in the rampant cigarette smuggling which went on between Canada and the US in the 1990s.
Says a MarketWire / Comtex press release »»»
The Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, made the following statement … concerning an RCMP investigation that has led to … Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited and Rothmans Benson & Hedges … entering guilty pleas in response to indictable offences under the Excise Act.
The two companies pleaded guilty to “aiding persons to sell and be in possession of tobacco manufactured in Canada that was not packaged and was not stamped in conformity with the Excise Act.”
Between 1989 to 1994, the federal and provincial governments boosted taxes, claiming it was a health, rather than financial, measure.
The, “Rising prices fueled a black market, with Canadian-made cigarettes shipped to the U.S., where taxes were lower, then smuggled back across the border,” says Bloomberg News, going on:
“The tobacco companies knew their exports would be sold on the black market, police said when the criminal charges were filed in 2003.”
“They were concerned if this went to court the penalty would be even greater,” the story has the Canadian Cancer Society’s Rob Cunningham saying. “The fines are small compared to the many billions of dollars lost by federal and provincial governments.”
Japan Tobacco’s JTI-MacDonald wasn’t a part of the settlement and still faces charges, says the story.
Imperial Tobacco Canada and Rothmans have, meanwhile, “agreed” to pay about C$1.15 billion ($1.12 billion) in fines and penalties.
It sounds like a lot, but it’s little more than a convenient business arrangement between the government and the multi-billion-dollar tobacco firms, who’ll no doubt increase the cost of their ‘product’ so nicotine addicts, not the companies, pay the bill.
Significantly, none of the cigarette industry executives who were responsible have been named or charged.
On the heels of the news, in much the same way Sony and BMG became Sony BMG, in Britain, America’s Philip Morris is taking over Canada’s Rothmans, according to the BBC.
Will it now be known as Philip Rothmans?
Adds Bloomberg News:
“Rothmans agreed to pay C$450 million over 10 years, in addition to the fine, the company said in a statement. Rothmans said resolution of the criminal case was a condition of its sale for C$2 billion to Philip Morris International …”
.
.Stumble It!
MarketWire / Comtex -Major Tobacco Companies Plead Guilty to Violations Under the Excise Act, July 31, 2008
Bloomberg News – Imperial, Rothmans Agree to Pay C$1.15 Billion Over Smuggling, July 31, 2008
BBC -Philip Morris takes over Rothmans, July 31, 2008
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August 1st, 2008 at 1:47 pm
What, no prison?
Even small scale cigarette smuggling typically gets the offender at least a few years in prison.
In early 2002, an Arab living in North Carolina was sentenced to over a hundred years for smuggling cigarettes — but back then stiff justice was the reality for any Arab facing an American jury in in the wake of 11September2001.
August 1st, 2008 at 7:46 pm
As if they’d even notice $1B. But this is how cartels operate, with boundless greed, lying and deception. Money is their god, at the expense of millions, even billions of lives. They are inhuman scum, just like the Big 4 music cartels. Then there’s the oil cartels which are blithely oblivious to destroying the world economy, so long as they can keep the ill-gotten wealth amassing at ever more increasing rates.
But smokers will look at the above picture through weary bleary eyes and rebel against another warning. They figure it’s their life and body to do with as they please. To hell with everyone else. They can handle the poisons. They’re indestructible, right? Who wants to live forever anyway? Funny that all the smokers I knew who died prematurely didn’t want to go, no matter how old they’d managed to live to. Nor do others sympathize really at their demise of course, as they chose to suicide for no reason. Just like vegetation which is here today and tomorrow thrown into the oven.
August 1st, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Most people hope for the demise of the evil cartels, but they’re cash cows to the govts who pour the revenue into the militia for ever greater ways to decimate populations. So the govts are death merchants even more than cartels. This along with spying on their own citizens is all for our own freedom and good, to live in the manner to which we are accustomed. Put your trust in leaders and modern technology? Not I.
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:55 am
Unless of course I am the one in power, in which case just ignore what I said. I am super human and thus am above all greed and corruption. Since I’m so special and cannot be bought off for any price, you can all rest assured that I really do have your freedom and good at heart, and that I will always make sure you are all able to live in the manner to which you are accustomed. Trust me!