Cigarette Manufacturers Lose Appeal in RICO Case

Altria Group, parent company of Philip Morris USA, said they will appeal to the Supreme Court.

"The court's conclusions are not supported by the law or the evidence presented at trial, and we believe the exceptional importance of these issues justifies further review."

While you might wonder about the use of racketeering to describe cigarettes, the government filed the case under a 1970 racketeering law commonly known as RICO. RICO is used primarily to prosecute in cases in which there has been a group effort to commit fraud. Aha, there's the connection.

The suit was first filed in 1999 during the Clinton administration.

Besides Altria and Philip Morris, other cigarette manufacturers in the lawsuit were: R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.; British American Tobacco Ltd.; Lorillard Tobacco Co. and Liggett Group Inc.

However, because Liggett came forward in the 1990s to admit smoking causes disease and is addictive and cooperated with government investigators, it was excluded from the ruling.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington upheld the 2006 decision that madated that manufacturers change the way they advertise and market cigarettes. Such labels such as "low tar," "light," "ultra light" or "mild" would be banned; such cigarettes have been found to be no safer than others because of how people smoke them.

The nine-month appeals trial included live and written testimony from 246 witnesses and almost 14,000 evidentiary exhibits.