Bennett S. LeBow - Criticism

Criticism

Anti-smoking critics have attacked LeBow for his involvement with and ownership of tobacco producer Liggett Group. Critics cite a 1993 deposition, where LeBow was reported to have denied knowing whether smoking caused cancer. By the mid-1990s, however, LeBow had broken ranks with other tobacco producers to settle cases against Liggett and had made statements that he believed smoking was harmful. Then, nearly a decade later, in 2005, LeBow would retract or disavow many of his earlier criticisms of the tobacco industry. In 2005, LeBow could identify only a handful of documents that had led to his earlier criticisms and was reluctant to identify a "direct link" between smoking and cancer. Critics cite evidence that Philip Morris paid at least some of Liggett's legal bills in order to buy its cooperation in anti-tobacco lawsuits.

LeBow has also been scrutinized a number of times for a variety of decisions and business dealings:

• In 2005, LeBow resigned from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Board of Trustees shortly after his appointment over discussions about the propriety of associating with the owner of a company which sells products that are known to cause cancer.

• In 1993, Brooke Group Shareholder Frank Gyetvan sued LeBow on behalf of other company shareholders, claiming Brooke had improperly lent Lebow money for luxury personal items, such as a $21 million dollar yacht. The suit was settled the following year, with LeBow repaying $16 million to Brooke's other shareholders and giving up his right to receive 6.25 million in preferred dividends .

• In 1989, LeBow was criticized for using $3 million to fly a planeload of friends to a London party for the launch of his 177-foot yacht. The trip came during the time LeBow controlled MAI Systems, an Irvine, Calif.-based computer network company, and Western Union. Both companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 1993." (Although LeBow later reorganized Western Union and sold it to First Financial Management for $1.2 billion.)

• In 1984, LeBow completed the sale of Information Displays which subsequently went bankrupt. The buyer sued LeBow and his partners for fraud and misrepresentation. In 1986, the S.E.C. charged an associate of LeBow's (William Weksel) with violations of securities regulations

• In the past, LeBow's business associations have come into question. In the book "Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America", the author states: "Ukrainian mob boss Vadim Rabinovich attended a Clinton-Gore fund raiser at the Sheraton Bel Harbor Hotel in Miami. Rabinovich came as a guest of Bennet S. LeBow, the Chairman of Brooke Group Ltd, Parent of Liggett, a cigarette manufacturing company (LeBow refused to comment)." According to a spokesman for LeBow, LeBow's Brooke Group and Rabinovich developed a business center and luxury hotel in Kiev.