Legal
Tobacco Firms Sued for $133 Million in Missed Settlement Payouts
Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg
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Philip Morris USA, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and more than a dozen other tobacco companies were sued by Iowa’s attorney general for allegedly failing to pay the state $133 million due under a 1998 settlement intended to avoid future health-related lawsuits.
The companies withheld a portion of their annual payments to Iowa in bad faith and “through a scheme of false claims and feigned ignorance,” Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat, said in a statement Thursday.