The Shuster Project
Tobacco Industry Fraud & False Claims Issues
Click HERE To Read Our Letter Sent to Senator Kerry's Presidential Campaign
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The Shuster Project Tobacco Industry Fraud & False Claims Issues
Click HERE To Read Our Letter Sent to Senator Kerry's Presidential Campaign
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Re: Your letter of 9/16/99 Date: 9/24/99 Dear Mr. Mfume, The timing of your letter was
remarkable. In reviewing the letters that have been
sent out, sofar, only the one sent to your Organization has troubled me. Although I had contacted the NAACP back
in 1992-93, I had merely addressed it to the then President of the Organization, as I had
with the National Organization for Women (NOW), the American Association of Retired
Persons (AARP) and several other National Organizations. Using what now is a crude word
processor back then, I did not have the capability to document as extensively as I do now,
the complete names and positions of those that either I wrote to back then, or who(m)
responded in their name(s). And you are quite correct about Mr.
Henry Lyons being leader of the National Baptist Convention. I did NOT contact that Organization,
opting to contact the NAACP as the singular Black American Organization/entity that I felt
could channel any developing cooperative efforts to the other Black American organizations
most effectively. Clearly, it must have been Mr. Benjamin
Hooks who was President of the NAACP when I first contacted your Organization. Despite the absence of any record of
such a letter, I assure you the NAACP was contacted around that timeframe. I have a
volunteer checking our archives for the original letter to your Organization. I am going to give you a major, “first-blush” introduction to how I believe you and the NAACP can be instrumental in participating in major “corrections” to tobacco industry fraud and false claims. This is going to be a lengthy letter, so I suggest you reread it a couple times…these are not exactly easy issues to get into. Please take a while to review The
Shuster Project Web site, http://rxshuster.org,
utilizing the small brown “Table of Contents” button at the very top. Go to “Victimized Businesses”
to get a feel of some of the fraud and discrimination that is used upon minority
businesses selling tobacco products (i.e. redlining, contract discrimination, denial of
“Special promotions” to name but a few.) Go to “Legal Issues” to see
an example of legislation I have drafted and proposed here in Connecticut to enable
Connecticut to directly engage the tobacco companies and their fraud and false claims
policies, practices and procedures that will immediately recover approximately $190
Million dollars in lost Tax revenues. This legislation will also establish Income Streams of approximately $10-$30 Million dollars or more per year in renewable Tax revenues that have been denied Connecticut and the other states for almost 45 years. Go to “Federal Issues” and after reading the IRS issues, letters, Forms 211’s filed and the IRS “responses” to that, ask yourself why the IRS would attempt to walk away from multiple Hundreds of Millions of dollars in just ONE area of tobacco company Income Tax Fraud that I have provided to them? Go to “State Issues” to see that every Connecticut state legislator has been informed multiple times about the multiple NON-health related issues, the legislation proposed to give Connecticut a powerful platform by which to recover approximately $200 Million dollars in lost Tax Revenues. All of the Attorneys General have also been given The Shuster Project Web site address and the regular Press Releases and site Update information…yours included. The Attorney General of Connecticut
spoke in favor of the bill I proposed, yet it is still bogged down with CBIA (Connecticut
Business and Industry Association) “objections.” I am preparing a major access/shift within my .org site from being generally “Media” interactive to formats which will be far more receptive to the General Public and businesses adversely affected by the fraudulent policies, practices and procedures of the tobacco companies. With this as the spurring event for me to review all prior correspondence, I can only re-state my invitation for your Organization’s “participation” in our Project identical as to how I framed it in the original letter to you from 6/16/99. In fact, there are a large number of things you and the NAACP can do to address the NON-health related tobacco company fraud and false claims issues we are addressing in The Shuster Project. More specifically framed, you would need to ascertain, first, if you have a database of Black American-owned businesses that sell cigarettes and tobacco products. Retail or Wholesale. In all 50 States. It would be most helpful if they had Email addresses. Fax communication is arduous and tedious and, thusfar, we have shied away from interacting with Organizations large and small that do not have internet connections. These Black American-owned businesses should be provided with The Shuster Project Web site address (http://rxshuster.org). There, these businesses can utilize the small brown Table of Contents button at the very top of the main Web site page and go to the “Victimized Businesses” section to learn some of the results of tobacco company employee embezzlement that may be occurring in their stores. These businesses can also obtain, although “dated,” a copy of all the tobacco companies “Manufacturers Code Date” guide to determine the “freshness” of their tobacco inventories. They will have to contact the tobacco companies directly to get the present “code” configuration(s), but it will help them to reduce their “stale” cigarette carton stock tremendously. Also, if they have ANY questions of business-related tobacco company fraud, there is a form there they can utilize to contact me directly with their question(s) for an immediate Email response. There is also, now, a Chat room that has been established within the site where they can reach me in “real time” to discuss any topics related to tobacco company fraud relative to their business(es). That covers just one thing your Organization can do to turn your Black American-owned businesses on to the means to protect their inventories from theft and staleness. This does not even get into their being made aware of and helping out by merely sending letters, emails or making calls in support of our legislative proposals…but I will address that with you at a later time…what I have sent, for now, would be an excellent beginning. The next topic would be addressed to those Black Americans that either are smokers or non-smokers. You would have to ascertain if you have a database of NAACP members, smokers or not, that have Email addresses so that those persons could be sent the Web site address of The Shuster Project (http://rxshuster.org). I will, within the next 3-7 days, have introduced a “Media-Alert” segment of The Shuster Project. This Media-Alert section is a direct hybrid of the Grassroots Effort spelled out in the letter of the same name in the Correspondence section of The Shuster Project Web site. I am going to be providing a more “user-friendly” set of technologies making it easier for any visitor to this section of The Shuster Project to become more actively involved in making the NON-health related tobacco fraud and false claims issues more directly “connected” and conveyed to local Media outlets. This, in effect, giving your membership an opportunity to become “activists,” individually and directly influencing corrective actions and measures which will address tobacco company fraud and false claims in their policies, practices and procedures. A search engine will be provided for them to locate the Email addresses of their local news sources (radio, newspaper(s) and television news channel(s).) They will be asked to add my email address, rshus177@aol.com, to the “Copy To” section of the Email so that I can track which Media outlets are being contacted by their “customers” asking that these crucial, NON-health-related tobacco issues receive coverage so that the viewer can follow the engagement of these issues by both their actions and those of The Shuster Project. Also, these Media outlets will be listed on The Shuster Project Web site so visitors can determine if those Media outlets are the ones they turn to for their “news” as well. This will be done to hold local Media accountable for either actively covering these crucial issues which have never been revealed before, or, if local Media will continue to “ignore” these issues and keep their “subscribers/customers” in the dark. I will also provide a “SmartBot,” there, which will allow the visitor to provide their Email address in order to receive the exact same Press Releases and Site updates that over 3,000 other Media outlets we send to, receive. If you go to the Correspondence section and read the letters I have sent to The American Heart Association and the American Lung Association, you will see that I am attempting to set up a “Corporate Grassroots Effort,” as well. I am asking that any Organization concerned about Tobacco Industry Fraud & False Claims ask their employees to consider following the simple instructions contained within the Public Invitation for Grassroots Effort letter in the Correspondence section. An Organization such as yours with multi-state chapters would go a great distance to making that effort an initial success. That success would be based upon and credit given to the individuals who, by their own choice, would participate. If I may call you Kweisi; Kweisi, I have sent you a tremendous amount of information in this correspondence. I have limited the content, however, to just a very few specific suggestions relative to your Organizations participation in The Shuster Project’s targeted goals and objectives. I’d like to think I have outlined each “proposal” with details of the proposition, source materials directions to specific points within The Shuster Project Web site, and the anticipated effect’s of your participation(s). I host 3 Chat room sessions per week for one hour each day. Please feel free to utilize the Chat room for expedient responses to any questions you may have relative to the content of this letter and any of the proposals contained herein. I am listing the name I will know would be you, should you log into the Chat room, as KweisiM I only enter the chat room as bobshuster I appreciate your response to my letter of 6/16/99. If you have an Email address, that would expedite communications en quantum. I look forward to hearing from you soon, or having you visit me sooner in my Chat Room on Tuesdays (9-10am EST), Wednesdays (9-10pm EST) or Thursdays 7-8pm EST). The Chat room can be located easily on the main page of The Shuster Project Web site located at http://rxshuster.org With Warm Regards, Bob Shuster Executive Director The Shuster Project 9/24/99
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