ALBANY, N.Y. — UPS deprived New York of millions of dollars of revenue by shipping nearly 700,000 cartons of untaxed cigarettes from Indian reservations to smokers statewide despite an earlier agreement to stop, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and New York City Corporation Counsel Zachary Carter are seeking $180 million from Atlanta-based UPS, saying the cheap cigarettes increased smoking by New Yorkers while also costing $29.7 million in lost excise tax revenue from the state and $4.7 million from the city.
UPS denied it knowingly shipped cigarettes, saying it agreed in 2005 to stop delivering cigarettes to consumers nationwide in a policy that exceeded requirements of federal and state law.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan, claims UPS shipped unstamped cigarettes to and from “numerous” contraband cigarette enterprises on Indian reservations in New York from 2010 to 2014, naming eight smoke shops or distributors.
