EU Files Criminal Complaint Against RJR for Money Laundering and more!

[Peter Lemkin]

The EU has filed a criminal complaint against RJR for wholesale money laundering. Someone's Dad would've been pissed off [inside joke] The story is deeper than it seems and also involves laundering dirty money buying top European football players etc.

[URL="http://www.tobacco.org/resources/Documents/021030ecvrjr.html"]http://www.tobacco.org/resources/Documents/021030ecvrjr.html

[part of the lawsuit]

[/URL]I. INTRODUCTION

1. For more than a decade, the DEFENDANTS (hereinafter also referred to as the "RJR DEFENDANTS" or "RJR") have directed, managed, and controlled money-laundering operations that extended within and/or directly damaged the Plaintiffs. The RJR DEFENDANTS have engaged in and facilitated organized crime by laundering the proceeds of narcotics trafficking and other crimes. As financial institutions worldwide have largely shunned the banking business of organized crime, narcotics traffickers and others, eager to conceal their crimes and use the fruits of their crimes, have turned away from traditional banks and relied upon companies, in particular the DEFENDANTS herein, to launder the proceeds of unlawful activity.

2. The DEFENDANTS knowingly sell their products to organized crime, arrange for secret payments from organized crime, and launder such proceeds in the United States or offshore venues known for bank secrecy. DEFENDANTS have laundered the illegal proceeds of members of Italian, Russian, and Colombian organized crime through financial institutions in New York City, including The Bank of New York, Citibank N.A., and Chase Manhattan Bank.

DEFENDANTS have even chosen to do business in Iraq, in violation of U.S. sanctions, in transactions that financed both the Iraqi regime and terrorist groups.

3. The RJR DEFENDANTS have, at the highest corporate level, determined that it will be a part of their operating business plan to sell cigarettes to and through criminal organizations and to accept criminal proceeds in payment for cigarettes by secret and surreptitious means, which under United States law constitutes money laundering. The officers and directors of the RJR DEFENDANTS facilitated this overarching money-laundering scheme

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by restructuring the corporate structure of the RJR DEFENDANTS, for example, by establishing subsidiaries in locations known for bank secrecy such as Switzerland to direct and implement their money-laundering schemes and to avoid detection by U.S. and European law enforcement.

This overarching scheme to establish a corporate structure and business plan to sell cigarettes to criminals and to launder criminal proceeds was implemented through many subsidiary schemes across THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY. Examples of these subsidiary schemes are described in this Complaint and include:

(a.) Laundering criminal proceeds received from the Alfred Bossert money-laundering organization;

(b.) Money Laundering for Italian organized crime;

(c.) Money laundering for Russian organized crime through The Bank of New York;

(d.) The Walt money-laundering conspiracy;

(e.) Money laundering through cut outs in Ireland and Belgium;

(f.) Laundering of the proceeds of narcotics sales throughout THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY by way of cigarette sales to criminals in Spain;

(g.) Laundering criminal proceeds in the United Kingdom;

(h.) Laundering criminal proceeds through cigarette sales via Cyprus; and

(i.) Illegal cigarette sales into Iraq.

Numerous additional subsidiary schemes exist that harm THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY and each of the MEMBER STATES named herein.

4. This civil action is based upon violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which was specifically intended by Congress to eradicate organized

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crime on all fronts (including in foreign and interstate commerce) and to deprive violators of their ill-gotten gains. It is also based upon violations of standards of common law, including fraud, negligence, unjust enrichment, public nuisance, and conspiracy to commit such torts.

Plaintiffs seek damages; equitable relief such as disgorgement of profits; and injunctive relief (a) to enjoin DEFENDANTS from engaging in money laundering and facilitating organized crime, and (b) to compel DEFENDANTS to adopt necessary programs and procedures to prevent such conduct in the future. Absent such relief, there will be an increased risk to national security, continued harm to Plaintiffs, and damage to the vital interests of the United States and Plaintiffs.
[URL="http://www.tobacco.org/resources/Documents/021030ecvrjr.html"]

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