In the ten years since the deal, many state and local governments have chosen to sell so-called tobacco bonds. They are a form of securitization. In many cases, bonds allow state and local governments to transfer to bondholders the risk of lower future payments for framework settlement agreements. In some cases, however, the bonds are backed by secondary pledges from government or local revenues, creating a perverse incentive to support the tobacco industry they now depend on for future payments against that debt. [55] This process of unification led to two other national agreements: Faced with the prospect of defending several actions at the national level, the majors sought a remedy after Congress, mainly in the form of a national legislative regulation. [9] In June 1997, the National Association of Attorneys General and the Majors jointly requested a comprehensive resolution in Congress. On June 20, 1997, Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore and a group of other attorneys general announced the details of the settlement. The settlement included a $365.5 billion payment by companies, approval of possible regulation by the Food and Drug Administration in certain circumstances, and stricter warnings and advertising restrictions. In return, businesses would be exempt from class actions and litigation fees would be capped.

[10]:422 PMS that join the Framework Settlement Agreement after this ninety-day exemption period must instead make annual payments based on all national sales of PMS cigarettes in a given year. In addition to its annual payment obligations, in order to join the Framework Settlement Agreement now, an unrestricted PMS must pay «within a reasonable time after the signing of the Framework Settlement Agreement» the amount to which it is payable under the Framework Settlement Agreement during the period between the date of entry into force of the Framework Settlement Agreement and the date on which the PMS acceded to the Agreement, would have been obliged. [17] Since 1998, some 41 other tobacco companies have joined the MSA as «subsequent participating producers.» For 40 years, tobacco companies had not been held responsible for cigarette-related diseases. Then, beginning in 1994, led by Florida, states across the country sued major tobacco companies to cover public expenses in medical expenses due to smoking. By changing the law to ensure they would win in court, states extorted a quarter-dollar settlement that was passed on by higher cigarette prices. Essentially, the tobacco companies had money; the states and their gun lawyers wanted money; this is how the collected companies and states paid. Then sick smokers got stuck with the bill. [52] The Fiduciary Act is based on the legislative conclusion that, given the MSA`s settlement of state claims against large cigarette manufacturers, it would be contrary to state policy for tobacco companies that decide not to enter into such a settlement to be able to benefit from a resulting cost advantage in order to generate significant short-term profits in the years preceding the liability, without guaranteeing that the State has a possible source of recovery from them if it is proved that they acted at fault. It is therefore in the interest of the State to require these producers to set up a reserve fund in order to provide a source of compensation and to prevent these producers from making significant profits in the short term and then making a judgment before liability can arise. [25] [26] In the largest civil litigation in U.S. history, states and territories won a victory that led tobacco companies to pay states and territories billions of dollars in annual payments. The money was used as compensation for taxpayers` money spent on tobacco-related diseases and loss to the local economy.

The agreement also provided for the creation of an independent organization dedicated to the prevention of tobacco use among youth and included funds to create this organization, the Truth Today Initiative. .

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