CEO Testifies Tobacco Firm Did ‘Right Thing’

Bennett S. LeBow, chief executive of Liggett Group parent Vector Group Ltd., testified Monday that his company broke with the rest of the tobacco industry to settle state lawsuits in 1996 because it was the “right thing” to do.

“I believe personally -- on a personal level -- that cigarettes are very dangerous and addictive, and it was time to do the right thing, so to speak,” LeBow testified as a defense witness in a racketeering case brought by the Justice Department against Liggett and other U.S. cigarette makers.

The cooperation of Liggett, the fifth-biggest U.S. cigarette maker, helped U.S. states pursue cases against the tobacco industry that resulted in settlements totaling $246 billion by 1998.

The Justice Department, which claims cigarette makers hid the dangers of smoking and sold cigarettes to teenagers for five decades, is seeking to force the industry to change the way it does business, including requiring a $130-billion smoking-cessation program to be funded by the companies.

In U.S. District Court in Washington, Stephen Brody, a lawyer for the government, tried to show that Liggett had not fully lived up to its agreement in the state settlements to waive legal protections on company documents relating to smoking and health and to release them to the public.

LeBow also testified that his company had tried unsuccessfully to market Omni, a cigarette with reduced carcinogens, and Quest, which has almost no nicotine and is intended to help smokers quit.

Under questioning by Brody, LeBow testified that Liggett had continued to sell “light” cigarettes in the face of evidence that smokers might be fooled into thinking they were safer than regular brands.

“One company can’t stop selling light cigarettes,” LeBow said. “You’d have to ban every company.”

LeBow was called as a witness by the government in February. He testified at that time that Liggett documents showed that cigarette makers knew smoking was addictive and caused cancer and that they hid that information from the public.

The other defendants in the case are Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris USA, Reynolds American Inc.’s R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Reynolds American’s Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., Loews Corp.’s Lorillard Tobacco Co. and British American Tobacco’s British American Tobacco Investments Ltd.