Andrew Forrest fires back at ExxonMobil’s claims of ‘smear campaigns and lawfare’
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Iron ore billionaire says he is ‘personally delighted’ at lawsuit as fossil fuel giant has ‘opened themselves up to cross-examination’ in a US court. Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest is among a group accused of orchestrating “smear campaigns and lawfare” against the global oil and gas sector “for politics, publicity, and private gain” in a dramatic defamation claim launched in US courts by fossil fuel company ExxonMobil.
But the iron ore billionaire, who is not himself a defendant in the case, said he is “personally delighted” at the court action and that “Exxon has walked themselves into the court and opened themselves up to cross-examination”. ExxonMobil’s suit accuses the California attorney general, Rob Bonta, and several environmental groups of conspiring to defame it by making statements criticising its plastics recycling technology.
Bonta sued ExxonMobil last year, saying the company had engaged in decades-long deception about the limitations of its plastics recycling regime. A Forrest-linked charity, the Intergenerational Environment Justice Fund (IEJF), is a named defendant in the suit, alongside US environmental groups the Sierra Club, San Francisco Baykeeper, Heal the Bay, and the Surfrider Foundation. The California-based groups have filed a countersuit against ExxonMobil.
The lawsuit, filed in Texas, claims that IEJF retained US lawyers Cotchett to engage in “political activities”, including filing a lawsuit against ExxonMobil. It seeks damages and retractions of “defamatory statements” from Bonta and the groups.
