ADIT

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ADIT is a French “strategic intelligence” company that provides its business clients with “high-value information from field investigations and economic intelligence tools”, as well as services related to business diplomacy and security.1 This includes activities related to the illicit tobacco trade.2

Relationship to the tobacco industry

Between July 2017 and April 2019, ADIT received funding from Philip Morris International (PMI) as part of PMI IMPACT, for the so-called “Rogue trade project”, dedicated to the “Development of a pan-European awareness platform, based on digital communication tools, to inform European businesses about the illegal trade of tobacco products and other mass consumption goods.”3

The project notably led to the creation of Eurobsit (European Observatory on Illicit Trade), a website dedicated to illicit trade.4

ADIT and PMI IMPACT also co-sponsored a conference on smuggling, counterfeiting, and terrorism financing, organized by Fondation Robert Schuman on 11 April 2018.5 The Association de Lutte Contre le Commerce Illicite (ALCCI, the association against illicit trade) was a sponsor for the event.5 ALCCI was founded by PMI Expert Council member Alain Juillet.6 EU commissioner Pierre Moscovici and other EU officials cancelled their participation following the publication of media articles on PMI funding the conference.7 Attendees included senior officials from Europol, the European Parliament, the European External Action Service, the European Union Intellectual Property Office, French and Belgian governments, and the OECD, in addition to other PMI IMPACT grantees (including from INTA and the Siracusa International Institute) and Alvise Giustiniani, Vice-President of illicit trade strategy and prevention at PMI.5

An investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed further information about the links between ADIT and the tobacco industry.8 It points to an ADIT report from 2016 (shortly before the beginning of the PMI-IMPACT funded project in July 2017), which was co-authored by two members of the PMI IMPACT Expert Council.8

TobaccoTactics Resources

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References

  1. ↑ADIT, Strategic Intelligence, ADIT website, accessed February 2023
  2. ↑ADIT, Fight Against Illicit Trade, ADIT website, accessed February 2023
  3. ↑Philip Morris International, Selected Projects: First Funding Round, PMI IMPACT website, undated, accessed 25 August 2022
  4. ↑Eurobsit, Eurobsit , website, undated, accessed January 2020
  5. ↑abcFondation Robert Schuman, Smuggling, counterfeiting and terrorism financing – Economic stakeholders’ mobilization, conference programme, 11 April 2018, accessed 2 June 2022
  6. ↑Tabac au Maroc : santé publique, lobbying et contrebande, l’impossible équation ?, La Tribune, 7 February 2019, accessed 14 July 2022
  7. ↑Bruxelles : nouvel exemple de collusion entre la Commission et le lobby du tabac, Mediapart, 3 April 2018, accessed 2 June 2022
  8. ↑abOCCRP, Alleged Associate of Burkinabè Cigarette Tycoon Apollinaire Compaoré Caught on Tape Attempting to Bribe Malian Official, 16 May 2023

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