Whistle-Blower Files Suit Against Tobacco Company

A tobacco industry whistle-blower filed a lawsuit Monday against Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., accusing his former employer of invading his privacy by compiling and distributing reports on his past.

B&W;, the nation’s third-largest tobacco company, has sued former research chief Jeffrey Wigand for allegedly violating a confidentiality agreement.

Wigand’s lawyer, Frank Doheny, said B&W;’s alleged campaign to discredit his client includes getting access to his credit card bills and interviewing relatives from a previous marriage.

“That’s an invasion of privacy, and that’s something no one should be subject to simply for testifying about the effects of tobacco or nicotine,” Doheny said.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from B&W; for subjecting Wigand to a “cruel and unjust hardship.” It was filed the day after CBS broadcast a “60 Minutes” interview with Wigand. The network had held the program since November, fearing a lawsuit.

On the program, Wigand said former company Chairman Thomas Sandefur lied to Congress when he testified that he believed nicotine is not addictive. Wigand also said Sandefur rejected making safer cigarettes because it would put the company at “extreme exposure” with its other tobacco products.

Wigand said he began carrying a handgun after receiving threatening telephone calls that warned, “Leave tobacco alone, or else you’ll find your kids hurt.”

B&W; denied any involvement.

“It’s absurd to suggest that Brown & Williamson had anything to do with purported threats,” said B&W; lawyer Gordon Smith, who said B&W; is considering filing a lawsuit against CBS over the broadcast Sunday.

Smith, speaking at a news conference in Louisville, Ky., where the company is based, called Wigand’s statements “unsubstantiated allegations.”