The Maryland Attorney General?s office filed two civil actions against a North Carolina-based cigarette manufacturer Wednesday, alleging the company?s owner deliberately shuffled his operations to avoid paying $66 million into a fund established in a 1990s settlement between tobacco companies and state governments.

The office filed a petition in Baltimore Circuit Court seeking to strip Cutting Edge Inc. ? which is incorporated in Maryland but operates in North Carolina ? of its corporate charter under Maryland law. The other filing, an enforcement action, says owner Calvin Phelps is using Cutting Edge as a back door into the Master Settlement Agreement for his other tobacco company, Alternative Brands.