Why British American released papers showing possible links to contraband sales remains a mystery.
Jump to full article: Los Angeles Times, 2003-11-23
Author: Myron Levin, Times Staff Writer
Intro: British American created the archive to hold millions of pages of documents produced for the anti- tobacco suit filed by the state of Minnesota in 1994. Most of the records involve health and marketing issues that were the crux of the lawsuit.
But embedded in the mountains of paper are fistfuls of memos on British American's links to cigarette smuggling — documents that weren't pertinent to the lawsuit and that the company never was asked to produce. It turned them over anyway, for reasons that remain a mystery.
The smuggling papers chronicle British American's swashbuckling march through the developing world and the role of contraband sales in its global expansion. Among the papers are memos from high-ranking executives discussing the importance of illicit sales in maintaining or building market share against like-minded competitors in such locales as Lebanon, Argentina and China.
Their disclosure rocked the industry
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