Appendix 2: RICO Decision Against the Tobacco Companies

• Author: James G. Wigmore
• Pages: 736-738

736

 2

RICO Decision Against the Tobacco

Companies

On  August , after seven years of trial, Judge Gladys Kessler of the

United States District Court of the District of Columbia issued a land-

mark ,-page opinion holding that the tobacco companies were liable

for conspiracy and violations of the Racketeer Inf‌luenced and Corrupt

Organizations Act (RICO) and ordered the tobacco companies to issue

the following corrective statements.

TEXT OF COURTORDERED CORRECTIVE STATEMENTS:

UNITED STATES V PHILIP MORRIS USA INC.

Adverse Health Ef‌fects of Smoking

A Federal Court has ordered Altria, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Lorillard, and

Philip Morris USA tomake this statement about the health ef‌fects of

smoking.

• Smoking kills, on average, , Americans. Every day.

• More people die every year from smoking than from murder, AIDS, sui-

cide, drugs, car crashes, and alcohol, combined.

• Smoking causes heart disease, emphysema, acute myeloid leukemia,

and cancer of the mouth, esophagus, larynx, lung, stomach, kidney,

bladder, and pancreas.

• Smoking also causes reduced fertility, low birth weight in newborns, and

cancer of the cervix.

 See US v Phillip Morris USA, Inc,  F.Supp.d  ().