LIGGETT MAY AID US IN TOBACCO PROBE

Cooperation could make the company's scientists and other experts available
to investigators.

Representatives of Liggett Group,the maker of L&M and other brands, are
exploring an agreement with Justice Department officials under which the
cigarette producer would cooperate in the government's criminal
investigation of the tobacco industry, said people familiar with talks.

The cooperation of Liggett, which is owned by Brooke Group Ltd., could
boost the Justice Department's four-year inquiry by making company
scientists and other experts available to investigators, even though
Liggett is the smallest of the nation's major cigarette producers and
considered producers and considered to be far less technically
sophisticated than giants like Philip Morris Cos.

Last March, Liggett broke with its industry colleagues and separately
settled 22 tobacco-related lawsuits filed against it by state attorneys
general. And Brooke Group Chairman Bennett LeBow became the first tobacco
industry executive to acknowledge publicly that nicotine is addictive and
that smoking causes cancer.

Paul Caminiti, a spokesman for Liggett, which also produces Chesterfield,
Eve and Lark cigarettes, would not comment. A Justice Department spokesman
said the agency, as a matter of policy, would not confirm or deny anything
potentially related to an investigation.

But people with knowledge of the talks, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity, said representatives of Liggett, including LeBow and Stanley
Arkin, a New York criminal lawyer retained by the company, have met several
times with Justice Department officials to discuss the terms and conditions
under which Liggett might cooperate with the government's inquiry.

The Justice Department is looking into such issues as whether cigarette
producers manipulated nicotine, the addictive substance in tobacco, or
whether they defrauded the government by lying to regulators and elected
officials. All manufacturers have denied any wrongdoing.

The goal of Liggett representatives in trying to craft a deal would be to
provide the company with immunity from prosecution or to reach a plea
agreement that would minimize any criminal penalties that the company or
its officials might face.

Most of Liggett's cooperation with the government would probably have to
come in terms of participation by its scientists, executives and lawyers,
including some who participated in meetings with officials and lawyers of
other cigarette producers.

It is not clear whether the talks between the Justice Department and
Liggett will result in an agreement. But Liggett's apparent efforts to set
itself apart from other tobacco producers are in keeping with the company's
actions over the past year.

After Liggett settled the state suits last March, other producers quickly
attacked LeBow and his company, branding him a traitor who was cutting a
deal to help prevent a financially weak company from falling into
bankruptcy.

Since then, LeBow has remained a thorn in the industry's side by testifying
on behalf of plaintiffs in smoking on behalf of plaintiffs in
smoking-related lawsuits and publicly releasing information on cigarette
ingredients and additives.