Word: lawsuit
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...Strangely, even the Sugihara family is divided on the case. Nobuki Sugihara, the hero's youngest son, has denounced the lawsuit as an exploitation of his elderly and infirm mother. But Yukiko's daughter-in-law Michi Sugihara calls Nobuki's position "foolish." Hollywood may also be entering the fray. Both authors are developing separate Sugihara film projects, though they deny that the lawsuit has anything to do with their cinematic endeavors. For now, it's anyone's guess which version of Sugihara's List will make it to the multiplex near...
Stephen Heard, an attorney for RJR, calls the lawsuit "a mixture of fabrication and fantasy" and says he expects it to be dismissed. An earlier version of the lawsuit, which accused RJR of tax evasion, was dismissed in February. But experts say the money-laundering allegations are more likely to stick. "This is a new dimension, and a clearly criminal dimension," says Richard Daynard, 59, a tobacco-litigation expert and professor of law at Northeastern University in Boston...
...part of their operating business plan to sell cigarettes to and through criminal organizations." The E.U. says RJR gave its "criminal customers" special treatment: removing the tracking codes from their shipments, sending invoices separately from the cargo and allowing them to pay through multiple intermediaries. Enabling contraband sales, the lawsuit claims, allowed RJR to increase its market share in those countries while avoiding taxes...
...alleged Iraq connection makes the case especially troublesome on RJR's home turf. To circumvent economic sanctions against Iraq, the lawsuit alleges, RJR used a former employee, who had become a cigarette distributor in Cyprus, to guide its Winstons and Aspens (the top-selling brand in Iraq) to Baghdad. There, Saddam's son Uday, 38, collected "taxes" on them. The trade is so lucrative, the E.U. alleges, that the Iraqi government allows the Kurdish Workers' Party--considered by the U.S. to be a terrorist organization and by Iraq to be a threat to the regime--to deal in cigarettes...
...thing on which both RJR and the E.U. agree is that cigarettes aren't the only vehicle for money laundering--stereos and CDs work almost as well. The E.U. lawsuit, along with new laws in the U.S. and Europe targeting the financing of terrorism, is meant to put other companies on notice. "The defense of 'We don't know about this,'" Auerbach says, "is becoming less and less credible." --With reporting by Helena Bachmann/Geneva and Leo Cendrowicz/Brussels