JTI Says Smuggling Claims Based on False Information

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 11/07/2011

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a joint program of 11 investigative journalism centers in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, alleges that Japan Tobacco International's distributors have been engaged in cigarette smuggling in a dozen countries, according to a Kyiv Post story relayed by the TMA. The report (at http://www.reportingproject.net/troubles_with_big_tobacco/), by John Holland, Bojana Jovanović and Stevan Dojčinović, alleges that a senior JTI executive blocked an investigation into whether JTI employees might have been working directly with smugglers. The report, said to be based on company records, e-mails, conversations secretly recorded by investigators, and interviews with past employees, claims that when JTI's anti-smuggling unit cracked down on smuggling routes and raised questions about suspect distributors, JTI retaliated by phasing out contractors with knowledge about the alleged smuggling, hacking into the team's computers, and taking other actions. JTI issued a written statement that blamed a 'former employee' for spreading false information. But otherwise, media relations vice president, Guy Côté, said the company did not wish to comment on the 'unfounded allegations raised in the various e-mails you sent us'. Enditem