Bloomberg News
Thursday, 9/23/99
by Greg Stohr
[continued from Index page back]
[Provided by Tobacco Daily News Summaries]
The US Justice Department has pulled out an anti-racketeering
law created to target mobsters for its multi-billion dollar
lawsuit against the tobacco industry.
Government lawyers say
that Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds and other cigarette makers
violated the 1970 Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act (RICO), which subjects companies to civil and
criminal liability if they engage in a pattern of illegal
activities.
Experts say that RICO could be the law that forces
the tobacco industry to return decades of profits. G. Robert
Blakey, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame who
authored RICO, said, "I don't see a significant weakness in
this. There are no significant problems in the federal
litigation."
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