From: Reuters via St. Louis Post-Dispatch
NEW YORK • A federal judge on Monday said FedEx Corp. must face claims that it violated federal law by delivering contraband cigarettes in New York, cheating the state and New York City out of millions of dollars of excise taxes.
U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos in Manhattan denied FedEx’s bid to dismiss claims it violated an anti-racketeering law and the Contraband Cigarette Trafficking Act by knowingly shipping nearly 400,000 cartons of untaxed cigarettes to individual residences from 2005 to 2012.
But the judge also dismissed a claim seeking civil fines for alleged violations of a state public health law, saying a 2013 amendment did not apply retroactively. Ramos separately dismissed a claim that FedEx created a public nuisance by distributing cigarettes at less than the legal price.
