Big Tobacco firms found guilty of conspiracy

A federal judge found Big Tobacco firms guilty of civil fraud and racketeering, but not to impose tough sanctions against companies in the lawsuit, citing the restrictive ruling of the Court of Appeal.

U.S. District Judge E. Gladys Kessler said that the Government within seven years the case against big tobacco cigarette of proven took part in a multi-year conspiracy to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking in the interest of making more profits. Kessler has been harsh words for the tobacco industry in its nearly 1700 pages of regulations, but said the federal appellate court ruling on the damages the government seeks "unfortunately, does not allow it to impose a multibillion U.S. sanctions against the industry.

Kessler banned the company from committing fraud in the future, the order of Philip Morris, Reynolds American, Lorillard Tobacco and British American Tobacco to the issue "corrective statements" on the advertisement in major newspapers and television networks, as well as their own websites. These statements must identify the danger and addictiveness of smoking, lack of health benefits from smoking low-tar cigarettes, the development of the companies' cigarettes for optimal delivery of nicotine and the negative health effects of secondhand smoke. Kessler also barred the company from the sale of cigarettes as "mild," "light" or "ultralight", saying that the word wrongly assumes that the cigarette less dangerous than conventional cigarettes.

Kessler decided that within 50 years of business, Big Tobacco was "lied, misrepresented and deceived the American public ... about the devastating health effects of smoking and tobacco smoke," and that the company has "suppressed research, they destroyed documents They manipulated the use of nicotine so as to increase and perpetuate addiction, they distorted the truth about low tar and light cigarettes to prevent smokers from quitting. " Kessler also said that the tobacco industry is a "great burden on our national health system."

"Exactly the same can be said of today's pharmaceutical industry," said Mike Adams, consumer health advocate, author of several articles, as compared with tobacco Big Big Pharma. "Today, pharmaceutical companies are guilty of virtually every crime committed by the tobacco companies. And, as Big Tobacco, Big Pharma will eventually be investigated and prosecuted for deceiving the public."

The Ministry of Justice said that he was "pleasantly" with the court's verdict of liability, but "disappointed" that Kessler did not impose punitive damages it sought in relation to companies. Anti-smoking groups involved in the case expressed a similar view.

Industry leader Philip Morris announced yesterday that he would like to encourage the Kessler decision, saying that "not supported by law or the evidence presented at trial."