Hundreds of US military members, civilians, and their families have filed a civil lawsuit in a federal court in eastern Virginia against British American Tobacco (BAT) and one of its subsidiaries. The plaintiffs allege that BAT secretly supported North Korea for years, indirectly financing Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hezbollah in developing weapons of mass destruction that caused harm to American citizens.

According to the complaint, BAT began producing cigarettes in North Korea in 2001 through a joint venture with a state-owned company. Although the firm announced its withdrawal in 2007 under international pressure, the US Department of Justice later said operations continued covertly through a subsidiary. A 2005 Guardian investigation first exposed the activity, and in 2023 a US Senate hearing revealed that about $418 million in transactions linked to BAT’s North Korea venture supported the country’s weapons program.

In 2023, BAT and its subsidiary reached a plea agreement with US authorities, admitting to sanctions violations and bank fraud, and agreed to pay $629 million in fines. The lawsuit claims funds from cigarette production and smuggling were used to aid attacks in Iraq and Kurdistan that killed and injured US personnel.