Pirate's Cove

This whole #ExxonKnew garbage has been going on for four years, with numerous attorney generals throwing suit after suit at the wall, but nowhere worse than NY State

Exxon found not guilty in New York climate-change securities fraud trial, ending 4-year saga

New York’s Attorney General failed to prove that Exxon mislead shareholders over the true cost of climate change, a judge ruled Tuesday, ending the oil giant’s multiyear battle against the state.

“The Office of the Attorney General failed to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that ExxonMobil made any material misstatements or omissions about its practices and procedures that misled any reasonable investor,” Judge Barry Ostrager of the trial-level state Supreme Court wrote in his ruling.

“The office of the Attorney General produced no testimony from any investor who claimed to have been misled by any disclosure, even though the Office of the Attorney General had previously represented it would call such individuals as trial witnesses,” he added.

The $1.6 billion lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general’s office alleged that Exxon deceived investors about the true cost of climate change. The trial, which began in October and was the first climate fraud lawsuit to go to trial, was the result of a four-year investigation.

Despite this tilting at wind turbines mills, NY wants to piss away more money

“Despite this decision, we will continue to fight to ensure companies are held responsible for actions that undermine and jeopardize the financial health and safety of Americans across our country, and we will continue to fight to end climate change,” Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement following the verdict.

This is all so bad that even at the usually reliable Democrat NY Daily News they’ve had enough, as Tom Stebbins notes

Calling the lawsuit “meritless,” “bizarre,” “twisted” and outside the realm of “objectivity and fairness” at the trial’s opening arguments, Exxon’s lawyer, Theodore Wells Jr., defended the company against the AG’s demand for up to $1.6 billion in payouts. Lawyers for the AG lobbed allegations that ExxonMobil has deceived the public and investors for years by misrepresenting financial risks related to current and future climate change-related regulations. The case, said Wells, was the result of a “political alliance with activists for the purpose of advancing an agenda.”

Stebbins discusses how we got here, starting with disgraced NY AG Eric Schneiderman using “…the Martin Act, a near-century old financial fraud statute — referred to as the “state’s most notorious” and “due-process-neglecting law”. And, as time went on and Exxon refused to back down as most companies do, the charges and accusations changed, as did the AG, to Barbara Underwood, who might have been even more unhinged over this.

Truth is, tarnishing the company in the court of public opinion is what Schneiderman and his allies were after all along. If that isn’t abuse of that Martin Act, one of the nation’s most powerful laws, I don’t know what is.

Yet, interestingly, the State Of New York refuses to give up their own use of fossil fuels. This was all about politics from members of the Cult of Climastrology, and, it is also interesting that just about every single Hotcoldwetdry suit filed, whether civil or criminal, fails.

But, refer back to the line about continuing to fight. They might not come after Exxon any time soon, but, Exxon should keep their eyes open, as should other companies and citizens who are ripe to be bullied by Government.