Tobacco’s deceit paid so well that a $200 billion settlement still turned profit.
Evidence
This story continued over the next four decades—even in the face of further damning scientific research—until 1998, when the tobacco companies finally agreed to close the successor to the TIRC (and in the process disclosed thousands of internal documents which showed that they had known the truth all along) as part of a
200 billion settlement that shielded them from future lawsuits. They were then free to sell their product to a worldwide market who could be presumed to know the risks. Why did they do this? Obviously the profit made during those four decades must have far outweighed the costs incurred, but once the evidence was undeniable and the lawsuits started in earnest, the companies must have calculated that their future profits would far exceed even the200 billion paid in settlement. Less than a decade later, the tobacco companies were found guilty of fraud under the federal racketeering (RICO) statute for conspiring to suppress what they knew about smoking and cancer as far back as 1953. — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 66
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims