UPS Must Pay $247 Million to N.Y. Over Untaxed Cigarettes
- Judge said she wants to send a message to top executives
- Company pledges to appeal, saying award is ‘excessive’
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United Parcel Service Inc. must pay $247 million to the state and city of New York for what a judge called the company’s "egregious and prolonged" failure to stop shipments of untaxed cigarettes from American Indian reservations that undermined anti-smoking efforts.
U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest in Manhattan said she wanted to send a message to the most senior executives at UPS about the cost of such misconduct. Modest penalties, she said in her ruling Thursday, “would not make a sufficient corporate impact” on the company.