New Tobacco Company, Licensed to Kill Inc., Incorporated in Va.

Aims to 'Kill 4.9M Worldwide Annually'; New Rival for Altria

RICHMOND, Va., April 17 -- The following was released today by Essential Action:

Today, Licensed to Kill, Inc, the world's newest multinational tobacco company, publicly announced its incorporation with the launch of the company's website: www.licensedtokill.biz

Licensed to Kill, Inc., was officially incorporated in the state of Virginia on March 19, 2003. The company's purpose, as stated in its articles of incorporation, is "the manufacture and marketing of tobacco products in a way that each year kills over 400,000 Americans and 4.5 million other persons worldwide."

The name "Licensed to Kill" derives from the Latin words 'licere' and 'caedere,' meaning 'permission to kill.' The name connotes an enterprise that is fully authorized by the state to aim for peak performance and constant improvement in killing for profit.

The new company is banking on its brutal honesty to spare itself from the multitude of lawsuits currently plaguing other companies within the industry. Many of these lawsuits have centered on the tobacco industry's long history of lies and deception about the deadly nature of the business.

Licensed to Kill, Inc. thanks the Commonwealth of Virginia's State Corporation Commission for granting it permission to exist, noting that the societal restrictions on serial killing luckily do not apply to corporations.

View a certified copy of Licensed to Kill, Inc.'s articles of incorporation at: www.licensedtokill.biz/articles.pdf

For more information about Licensed to Kill, Inc., including its line of products, visit our
website at: www.licensedtokill.biz

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NOTE: Licensed to Kill, Inc. was incorporated on March 19, 2003, as a project of Essential Action, a corporate accountability group based in Washington, DC.

Licensed to Kill, Inc. was launched to draw attention to the assistance state governments give to the formation and operation of tobacco companies, and to the nature of the industry behind the global epidemic of tobacco-related death and disease, which currently kills 4.9 million people worldwide annually. For more information: www.licensedtokill.biz/critics.html