WASHINGTON (Reuters) – British American Tobacco (BAT) will plead guilty on Tuesday to charges of conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on North Korea and commit bank fraud, a U.S. court document shows.
The group made sales of tobacco products in North Korea between 2009 and 2017, despite US sanctions aimed at preventing funding for its nuclear and ballistic missile program.
BAT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The owner of the Lucky Strike and Newport cigarette brands had indicated in its 2019 annual report that it had operations in a number of countries subject to various sanctions, including Iran and Cuba, and that operations in these countries exposed the company. at the risk of “significant financial costs”.
The US Department of Justice charges say the company knowingly engaged in a conspiracy to defraud a financial institution and “obtain money, funds, credits, assets, securities, and other property belonging to a financial institution or under its custody and control”.
The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is currently carrying out a separate investigation into BAT, into “suspicion of corruption in the conduct of business by group companies and associated persons”.
(Report Sarah N. Lynch and Doina Chiacu, Augustin Turpin, edited by Kate Entringer)
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