R.J. Reynolds Can Face Racketeering Charge for Conduct in Europe

Source from:  Daily News  04/25/2014

The maker of Camel, Pall Mall, Kool, Doral and Winston cigarettes, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., is alleged to have been involved in money laundering scheme between Europer and South American drug dealers.

The EU can try to smoke out a major American tobacco company, a federal appeals court in Manhattan ruled Wednesday.

The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals said American racketeering law can be applied to conduct outside the country. The 12-year-old suit filed by the 26-nation European Community, later incorporated into the EU, alleges R.J. Reynolds orchestrated an international scheme with Colombian and Russian criminal syndicates.

The lawsuit claims the maker of brands including Camel, Kool and Pall Mall allowed its cigarettes to be sold as part of a multistep money-laundering operation that involved European money brokers and South American drug dealers and affected the narcotics trade in New York. Enditem