Sandia Tobacco target of $4.7M federal suit

The federal government is suing Albuquerque-based Sandia Tobacco Manufacturer Inc. for more than $4.7 million in assessments and late fees, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month in federal court.

The filing claims the cigarette, cigar and roll-your-own tobacco company has failed to comply with the payment terms of multiple promissory notes, which are written promises to pay an agreed-upon amount, issued between 2008 and 2011. The company’s last partial payment to the government was in 2012, according to the document.

“As of September 30, 2016, defendant Sandia’s outstanding balance, including late interest, was $4,717,090.84, all of which is currently delinquent,” the lawsuit stated.

Jean-Michel Voltaire, one of the attorneys representing the federal government in the case, declined comment. Sandia Tobacco did not respond to a request for comment.

The issue dates to the 1930s, when federal law set quotas on how much tobacco could be grown by American farmers, and set a minimum price for what was grown. That changed with the Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act of 2004. To ease the industry’s transition to a free market, the act provided tobacco farmers with annual payments from fiscal year 2005 to 2014. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Credit Corp. funded those payments by placing assessments on tobacco manufacturers and importers over that same period.

The filing states Sandia Tobacco never challenged any of the assessments imposed on it by the Commodity Credit Corp.

The government is requesting that the court order the company to pay the full $4.7 million as well as “additional relief as the court deems just.”