British American Tobacco accused of exploiting war to sell cigarette

While civilians are being killed and cities ravaged by violence, the British American Tobacco is alleged to have pursued the opportunities to grow its markets, says a leading British daily.

The Guardian in a special report revealed that “BAT promoted sales of its cigarettes in some of the most fragile, war-torn and unstable countries of Africa and the Middle East”. 

The newspaper claims to have seen the documents that described how cartons of cigarettes were distributed among traders ‘hidden in black bags’ in Somalia after Al-Shabaab banned sales of tobacco and threatened punishments under Sharia law between late 2008 and early 2009. 

“They also show that BAT made plans to launch in South Sudan just two days before it gained independence from the north after years of destruction from a civil war that left 4 million people displaced.” 

And they tell of a town in eastern DRC (The Democratic Republic of the Congo) that is not on any map, created by BAT to produce and process tobacco leaf, where, according to a whistleblower, “millions of dollars were delivered to pay farmers and staff, carried in secretly”. 

The documents were shown to The Guardian by Paul Hopkins, who was employed by BAT in Africa for 13 years until he blew the whistle internally on what he describes as unethical conduct. 

He was later made redundant and left in December 2015. 

Hopkins tried suing BAT for unfair dismissal but, according to the news report, an employment tribunal in London ruled that his employment contract was governed by Kenyan rather than English law preventing him from further pursuing his claim in the UK. 

The Serious Fraud Office said earlier this month that “it was investigating his allegations.” 

The accusation came amid BAT’s bid to raise finances to conclude its purchase of Reynolds American, which will make it the biggest tobacco company in the world. 

Paul Hopkins says BAT brand cigarettes were hidden in plastic in Somalia after al-Shabaab banned sales. Photograph: Paul Hopkins via The Guardian

Hopkins says that “fragile states were of interest to BAT, in spite of the practical difficulties and dangers involved in moving cartons of cigarettes and money about”, according to the newspaper. 

“If you have no government, you have nobody annoying you about health warnings and nicotine content,” he told The Guardian. “No customs. You basically pay your tax to the local militias on the airfield where you are landing.” 

Asked by The Guardian if it had avoided local customs duties and paid cash to local militias, particularly in the DRC, BAT insisted that “it observes all relevant laws and regulations in the 200 countries in which it operates and that it had pre-paid excise duty to the DRC government”.  

Hopkins, a former soldier in the Irish Army’s special forces unit, said he was required on several occasions to “take millions of dollars in cash into the DRC”. 

He also told the newspaper it was destined for the town of Auzi in the northeast, unnamed on maps. Auzi had been built by BAT in the 1950s with a church and a school. It was run by the subsidiary company BAT Leaf. 

Usually, an outside security company took cash into the DRC to pay for the leaf, which was graded in Auzi but then transported through Uganda to Kenya for manufacturing. But while the usual couriers were on leave, Hopkins says he was told to do the run, said The Guardian.

“When the weather is not bad, you can drive,” said Hopkins. “It’s about an hour from Arua in Uganda, across wooden bridges and along dirt roads.”

Hopkins showed a photograph of a huge stack of notes, totalling $2.5m that he said he “picked up in Kampala and took with him on a Cessna plane that took off from a private airfield outside of the city.”

He said he flew to Arua, where a security company employed by BAT supplied him legally with a pistol. Once on the other side of the Congolese border, he said, “I would rent an AK47 for a couple of days.”

But, he said, “your best protection was the 40,000-plus farmers [in eastern Congo]. They didn’t want the rebels to get you because you were carrying their money.” 

He said he would camouflage the dollars in bags of promotional items, such as BAT hats and pens, which he would give away to the rebels. 

In Somalia, the documents show BAT had a strategy to continue selling its cigarettes in spite of warnings by the fundamentalist group Al-Shabaab that it would punish those who sold them under Sharia law. 

One of the smaller cash drops, worth $2.5 million, which Paul Hopkins says was taken over the Ugandan border to the BAT town of Auzi in DRC Photograph: Paul Hopkins via The Guardian

In a statement, a British American Tobacco spokesperson said:“We take our commitment to the responsible marketing of our products very seriously. We have strict, company-wide marketing principles in place to ensure that our products are marketed responsibly, in addition to adhering to all relevant laws and regulations in the 200 markets where we operate. 

“Specifically, we comply fully with the regulations for tobacco products in the DRC – which has been in place in this country since 2007 – that prescribes health warnings and health warning sizes and sets limits for tar and nicotine content. 

“Additionally, in other African countries, including South Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland, where there is no tobacco regulation in place, we voluntarily apply a side panel health warning on all of our products sold in those markets.

“We fully comply with the relevant tax law in every country in which we operate. Specifically, in DRC, excise on tobacco products is pre-paid to the government at the time of ordering excise/tax stamps. This is a process that BAT adheres to strictly for all products it sells in this country. 

“In each market where we are present, we offer consumers a choice of products, which can include local brands, international brands and our global drive brands. Our strict international marketing principles apply, and are adhered to, in each of the 200 markets around the world where we operate.”