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TRENTON
-- Attorney General Anne Milgram announced
today that the state has filed a lawsuit
against New-York-based cigarette seller
Red Jacket Tobacco alleging various illegal
business practices related to its advertising
and sale, by mail order, of “tax free”
cigarettes in New Jersey.
Filed
today in the Chancery Division of Superior
Court in Mercer County, the five-count complaint
names as defendants Red Jacket Tobacco,
and Leslie A. Hoag, a principal in the business.
The
complaint was filed on behalf of both the
Division of Taxation within the Department
of Treasury, and the Division of Consumer
Affairs. Among other violations, the lawsuit
charges Red Jacket with selling cigarettes
without a license, failing to charge the
New Jersey cigarette tax and sales tax,
failing to register with the Division of
Taxation as required by law, false advertising,
and selling cigarettes to a consumer without
verifying that the consumer is at least
19 years of age.
The complaint also charges Red Jacket with
selling a cigarette brand – namely
the 305’s brand manufactured by Florida-based
Dosal Tobacco Corporation – not listed
on the New Jersey Attorney General Tobacco
Manufacturer Directory.
The
suit seeks a court order directing Red Jacket
to stop its unlawful cigarette advertising
and sales practices, and to pay the maximum
penalties allowable by law.
“This
action is about putting a halt to sales
practices that seek to evade taxation, and
which flaunt our laws in any number of other
ways,” said Attorney General Milgram.
“It’s also about holding Red
Jacket responsible for deceiving New Jersey
consumers with false enticements for ‘tax
free’ product, and for selling tobacco
with no regard for whether the consumer
is of legal age.”
According
to the state’s lawsuit, Red Jacket,
which lists its address as a post office
box in Salamanca, N.Y., circulated advertisements
in New Jersey in April of this year that
read, “TAX FREE CIGARETTES TO YOUR
DOOR” and “IF WE DON’T
HAVE IT, WE CAN ORDER IT.”
The
lawsuit alleges that Red Jacket sold five
cartons of cigarettes – 1,000 cigarettes
in all – by mail to a New Jersey State
Investigator in June of this year.
Of those five cartons, three contained 305’s
brand cigarettes made by Dosal Tobacco of
Opa Locka, Fla. Dosal is not registered
in the New Jersey Attorney General Tobacco
Manufacturer Directory, therefore its cigarettes
are not legal for sale in New Jersey. The
cigarettes shipped by Red Jacket to the
State Investigator in June also did not
bear the required New Jersey tax stamps.
In addition, no attempt was made by Red
Jacket to establish the age of the consumer
receiving the cigarettes.
Red Jacket subsequently processed an order
for two more cartons of Dosal cigarettes
from the same State Investigator on October
6 of this year, the state’s lawsuit
charges. Again, there was no attempt by
Red Jacket to establish the age of the consumer.
The
Red Jacket litigation is being handled on
behalf of the state by Deputy Attorney General
Cathy A. Melitski, of the Division of Law's
Tobacco Litigation Section.
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