CTR Special Projects

CTR Special Projects was a secret division of the tobacco industry's Council for Tobacco Research where research projects that could yield results harmful to the industry were directed, to keep them from the public by shielding them through attorney-client privilege.

Information about the CTR's "Special Projects" division was revealed in the case of Susan Haines v. Liggett Group, presided over by judge H. Lee Sarokin, a landmark American legal case against the industry in which Judge Sarokin suggested that the mountains of tobacco industry documents that had been protected by the attorney/client privilege be made public. Sarokin said these documents could not be held under attorney/client privilege because doing so violated the crime fraud exception.

In Haines, the plaintiff alleged that tobacco company defendants perpetrated a public relations fraud, and presented evidence showing that the defendant tobacco companies were aware of the risks of smoking; were concerned about the publication of those risks by others and the consequent impact upon cigarette sales; and sought to discredit or neutralize the adverse information by proffering an independent research organization called the Council for Tobacco Research (CTR), which claimed it would examine the risks of smoking and report its findings to the public. The plaintiff presented evidence that industry-funded research which might indict smoking as a cause of illness was diverted to CTR's secret research projects division ("Special Projects") and that the research efforts CTR publicized were primarily directed at finding causes other than smoking for the illnesses being attributed to smoking.

Thus, industry-funded research projects which wold have tended to prove smoking was, in fact, a cause of illnesses, was diverted into "CTR Special Projects" division, where they were intentionally shielded by attorney-client privilege so as to prevent their public disclosure.

Sourcewatch resources

 * The U.S. Government's racketeering case against Big Tobacco
 * Council for Tobacco Research

External resources
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