JAPAN TOBACCO DISTRIBUTORS TIED TO CIGARETTE SMUGGLING INVESTIGATIVE UNIT FIRED
hetq
15:28, November 3, 2011
Executives of Japan Tobacco International (JTI) stood by as its
distributors engaged in widespread cigarette smuggling in a dozen
countries, according to company records, e-mails, secretly recorded
conversations by investigators, and interviews with a half-dozen
past employees.
When the company’s anti-smuggling unit cracked down on smuggling routes
and raised questions about suspect distributors, JTI retaliated last
year by hacking into the team’s computers, firing its leaders, and
phasing out nearly a dozen contractors who knew about the smuggling,
according to former employees.
This year, as Syrian president Bashar al-Assad killed his own people
and faced worldwide sanctions, JTI’s Middle East business partner
poured cigarettes into duty free shops that the European Union says
helped prop up the regime, the records show.
JTI is the international arm of Japan Tobacco, the world’s third
largest tobacco company and maker of such brands as Winston, Camel
and Benson & Hedges.
The widespread smuggling occurred despite a 2007 JTI agreement with
the European Union to crack down on illicit shipments.
The story is being released today by the Organized Crime and Corruption
Reporting Project, a joint program of 11 investigative journalism
centers in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
The internal JTI records were provided to OCCRP by sources close
to the company. Six former employees confirmed the authenticity of
the documents, which are available on the OCCRP website. Among the
revelations:
Smuggling incidents were reported almost monthly during 2009-10,
but former employees said no action was taken in the company’s
most profitable areas. Investigators suspected tens of millions of
JTI cigarettes were being diverted to smuggling operations in the
Philippines, Afghanistan, Jordan, Iraq and elsewhere, often with the
help of JTI’s own distributors.
When investigators received information that 13 JTI employees or
distributors may have been working directly with smugglers, a senior
JTI vice president blocked an investigation, according to company
e-mails and internal memos.
UJTI contractors paid officials in Iraq, Kurdistan and Iran to get
information on smuggling routes, according to company internal reports
and interviews with contractors.
Executives at JTI headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, declined to
answer specific questions, but did issue a written statement blaming a
“former employee” for spreading false information. “Our company does
not wish to comment on the unfounded allegations raised in the various
e-mails you sent us,” media relations vice president Guy Cote wrote
in an e-mail.
“If JTI has carried on aiding and abetting smuggling, then it’s
clear that a regional agreement like that negotiated by the EU is
insufficient,” said Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on
Smoking and Health (ASH) in London. “When you have smuggling, you
undermine public health, you invite crime and you rob tax payers of
millions of pounds of revenue every year.”
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a
joint program of the Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo,
the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism, the Bulgarian
Investigative Journalism Center, the Center for Investigative
Reporting in Serbia, Novaya Gazeta, the Kyiv Post, HETQ in Armenia,
re:baltica, Atlatszo.hu, SCOOP-Macedonia, MANS in Montenegro and a
network of investigative journalists and media from Eastern Europe
to Central Asia.
OCCRP’s goal is to help the people of the region better understand
how organized crime and corruption affect their lives. OCCRP seeks
to provide in-depth investigative stories as well as the latest news
pertaining to organized crime and corruption activities in Eastern
Europe and the Caucasus.