All smoke and daggers
COME CLEAN: TOBACCO FIRM’S SPIES ALLEGEDLY MONITORED COMPETITORS
Batsa has also been accused of stealing commercially sensitive documents like production schedules and invoices.
The tobacco industry can’t quite shake off its shady image. Johann van Loggerenberg’s book Tobacco Wars lays out the field of battle and who the main players are. It’s a dirty business.
On November 4, the Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association (Fita) served a Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) request on British American Tobacco SA (Batsa) to make public the findings of an investigation into the cigarette giant’s alleged conduct several years ago against its smaller competitors.
In September 2016, Batsa announced it had severed ties with forensic investigation firm Forensic Security Services (FSS), which has been accused of dirty tricks against smaller producers.
According to Tobacco Wars, FSS recruited ex-cops and spooks ostensibly to stop illicit trading in cigarettes, but one of its key tasks was to spy on Batsa’s competitors.
A key piece of evidence in support of this claim is an affidavit from former FSS employee Francois van der Westhuizen, in which he says he was told that all his actions – including the interception of communications and breaches of the right to privacy – were sanctioned by the law.
In hindsight, he says, Batsa to use his investigative skills, with back-up from corrupt police and SA Revenue Service (Sars) officials, “to disrupt the business of Batsa’s competitors”.
The alleged reach of the FSS was astonishing, and included Sars, the Hawks, the South African Police Service, the Crime Intelligence Unit, the Asset Forfeiture Unit, and the Customs and Traffic Control Policing Unit.
Batsa head of external affairs Johnny Moloto replied that the report in question “is legally privileged and was prepared for the purpose of British American Tobacco obtaining legal advice”.
“The contents of the report may be relevant to ongoing investigations and litigation. British American Tobacco has made disclosures to the appropriate South African and other law enforcement authorities.”
Back to Fita’s Paia application and its attempt to get access to Batsa’s internal investigation into the now reasonably well-documented activities of FSS.
Its operatives are alleged, by former employee Van der Westhuizen, to have placed tracking devices on competitor trucks to monitor their frequency, type of stock and to see who was receiving the goods.
They intercepted phone calls, placed hidden cameras at competitors’ workplaces and homes, and followed their vehicles around.
The spies also stole commercially sensitive documents, such as production schedules and invoices, and handed these to their FSS “handlers” who would then allegedly pass them on to Batsa.
The statement issued by Fita two weeks ago says that after the allegations of spying by FSS became public knowledge in 2016, Batsa had instructed three sets of attorneys in SA and the UK – Norton Rose Fulbright, Linklaters and Slaughter and May – to conduct investigations into allegations against them.
It’s now more than three years since the investigation was announced and the findings have yet to be made public.
Fita’s Paia request seeks to flush it into the open.