RJR Executive Charged with Cig Smuggling (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

February 27, 1999

Tobacco Executive Charged

By The Associated Press

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -- A former R.J. Reynolds marketing executive has been
charged with helping smugglers scheme to sell nearly $700 million worth of
cigarettes on the Canadian black market. 

Leslie Thompson, 51, was arrested this week in Detroit on money laundering
charges. If convicted, he could get 20 years in prison. 

He is the first tobacco industry executive charged in the federal government's
investigation into tobacco and alcohol smuggling through the St. Regis Mohawk
Reservation in northern New York. 

The smugglers avoided paying excise taxes to the United States by telling
customs agents that the Canadian cigarettes they were carrying were being
brought into the country for export to Russia. Instead, they were shipped to
the St. Regis reservation and smuggled across the St. Lawrence River back into
Canada, thus cheating the Canadian government of taxes as well. 

It appeared Thompson was preparing to flee the country when arrested,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory West said Friday. Thompson was ordered held
without bail. The government also is seeking to seize $87 million in illicit
assets from Thompson, West said. 

Two dozen people have been convicted in the case and are awaiting sentencing.
In December, Northern Brands International, an R.J. Reynolds subsidiary,
admitted helping the smuggling ring and paid $15 million in fines and
forfeitures. 

Thompson was placed on leave after the company began an internal investigation
into Northern Brands. Adam Bryan-Brown, a spokesman for R.J. Reynolds, said
the allegations against Thompson run ``completely contrary'' to corporate
policy.