If you see larger issues in the trial, there’s a lot of information on that. Much of which has been posted here.

Fascinating insights into this relationship came to light when a Royal Canadian Mounted Police search warrant and related affidavit were made public following a November, 2004 raid on Imperial Tobacco Canada’s Montreal headquarters.

A description of the document, as well as downloadable segments of the entire document can be found here.

http://www.smoke-free.ca/eng_home/news_special_RCMP_Search_Warrant_Jan_05.htm

While the document is written in French, it includes extensive quotes from tobacco industry documents written in English, and they tell a fascinating story that is very pertinent to the DOJ case. The deep involvement of PMUSA and PMI in the Canadian cigarette smuggling saga is described in Annex C, Chapter 3 of the Canadian affidavit. There are tales on intra-company cooperation, feuding and dispute resolution. To see Chapter 3, download the following 2 pdf’s.

http://www.smoke-free.ca/ITL%20search%20warrant/November%202004%20ITL%20search%20affidavit%20-%20Annex%20C%20-%20Chapter%203%20-%20pp%2044-63.pdf.

http://www.smoke-free.ca/ITL%20search%20warrant/November%202004%20ITL%20search%20affidavit%20-%20Annex%20C%20-%20Chapter%203%20-%20pp%2064-83.pdf

>>Could DOJ make the case that PMI’s behavior, as apparently sanctioned by Altria, might represent PMU’s in the future, in the absence of the MSA or other litigation threats, including this case? Could this play into DOJ’s attempts to prove the likelihood of future violations, or even its attempt to “prevent and restrain” future ones?

PMINTL is simply not a defendant in this case. They don’t sell cigarettes in the USA, and they aren’t a signatory to the MSA.

I’m not sure what the legal status of advertising cigarettes on race-cars in Europe is, but I’d imagine said marketing is legal there. In any case whatever PMINTL does in Europe is certainly NOT a RICO violation and would be an issue for the EU to deal with, not the American Justice system. Judge Kessler simply has no jurisdiction over PMINTLs actitivies in Europe. That would also go for selling European kiddy pajamas with Marlboro ads on them.

If the DOJ wants to argue that because PMINTL advertises on racecars in Europe, PMUSA or the other tobacco companies might start doing the same, I don’t think that argument is going to get them very far. There are a lot of things the tobacco companies *could* do. . .but that’s different than providing evidence that they are *likely* to do these things, a nececessary component of this civil RICO trial. Realistically, PMUSA probably isnt going to pay for expensive European racecar sponsorships when they dont sell cigarettes in Europe! If they want to market to Americans there are undoubtedly more efficient ways to do that than paying for European racing, and hoping that a few Americans catch the ads on cable TV.

Apart from that, as far as whether or not PMINTL’s advertising practices *could* spill over to PMUSA, I think its too late in the game to start making that kind of argument at trial anyway. The liability portion of this case is already closed, and the DOJ doesn’t get to introduce new evidence anymore.

;-)

Best,

Gene

His mom and his sisters concur.

Thank you,

Mrs. Thomas Frederick