12
TOBACCO BUSINESS
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013
NEWS & TRENDS
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013
Davidoff Art Initiative Goes to Asia
For the first time, The Oettinger Davidoff Group will extend its cultural patronage to Asia.
The goal of the Davidoff Art Initia-
tive is to make a lasting contribution
to the world of contemporary art,
particularly in the Dominican Repub-
lic and the Caribbean region, where
the company’s products are culti-
vated and crafted. The Art Initiative
was launched in 2012, the same year
Basel, Switzerland-based Davidoff
strengthened its presence in the con-
temporary art world by assuming the
role of Associate Partner of Art Basel.
Through its four global program ar-
eas—Davidoff Art Residency, Davidoff
Art Dialogues, Davidoff Art Grants and
Davidoff Art Editions—the Davidoff
Art Initiative builds on the company’s
longstanding commitment to artistry,
craftsmanship, community and qual-
ity. “Art Basel was our first connec-
tion to the art world and it continues
to be our anchor partner as we build
our global Davidoff Art Initiative,”
notes Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard, CEO
of Oettinger Davidoff Group. “We are
excited to be at Art Basel’s inaugural
show in Hong Kong to share the lat-
est developments in our Art Initiative,
especially building new relationships
with two such highly respected orga-
nizations in Asia as the Ullens Center
for Contemporary Art and Red Gate
Gallery Residency.”
Beijing is the third international
partner residency location to be con-
firmed by the Davidoff Art Initiative,
joining ISCP in New York and Kün-
stlerhaus Bethanien Berlin. The resi-
dency will be hosted by Red Gate Gal-
lery Residency, an international artist
residency program providing artists,
curators, writers and academics an
opportunity to live and work in China.
An important dimension of the Da-
vidoff Art Initiative will be a series of
dialogues that the program will host
worldwide, independently and in part-
nership with art organizations, to share
information and offer opportunities for
discussion for experts and art enthu-
siasts about current issues and trends
in contemporary art and art collecting.
The inaugural project of this series will
be hosted in collaboration with the
Davidoff Art Initiative and Beijing’s Ul-
lens Center for Contemporary Art. Dia-
logues on “Art Collecting in China” will
be a two-part series of events taking
place in fall 2013 in Hong Kong and in
spring 2014 in Beijing. The events will
bring together key figures in the Chi-
nese and international art worlds to ex-
plore different facets of art collecting.
New York Attorney General Eric Sch-
neiderman and New York City Police
Commissioner Ray Kelly indicted 16
members of a criminal ring allegedly
responsible for bringing more than a
million cartons of untaxed cigarettes
from Virginia to New York City. In
the 244-count indictment, members
of the enterprise are charged with
corruption, money laundering and
related tax crimes and face up to 25
years in jail.
The contraband was report-
edly obtained from Cooper-Booth
Wholesale, a Virginia-based whole-
saler, and stored in a public stor-
age facility in Delaware where the
co-conspirators made pickups on a
weekly basis. Following the seizure
of its assets as part of the investi-
gation, Cooper-Booth has declared
bankruptcy.
Over the course of a year, law en-
forcement officials involved in in-
vestigating the criminal ring seized
more than 65,000 forged city and
state cigarette tax stamps not affixed
to cigarette packs and nearly 20,000
cartons of untaxed cigarettes. The
investigation, which is ongoing, has
reportedly uncovered $55 million in
illegal cigarette sales thus far.
The criminal ring—whose mem-
bers are Palestinian—was allegedly
headed by Basel Ramadan and his
brother Samir. It also included sev-
eral New York-based cigarette dis-
tributors and resellers, as well as
Adel Abuzahrieh, who served as a
carrier transporting cash—as much
as $100,000 per trip—and cigarettes
between New York and Delaware.
Distributors who took possession
of the merchandise distributed it to
resellers, who then sold the untaxed
cigarettes to Arab markets and gro-
cery stores in Brooklyn, Queens, the
Bronx and Staten Island. Estimates
by the attorney general’s office put
the sales tax revenue lost to New
York State at more than $80 million.
New York Breaks Cigarette Trafficking Enterprise
Sixteen members of a cigarette smuggling ring have been indicted.
