Mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest - one of Australia's richest people - has been named in a lawsuit, accused of conducting a smear campaign to damage the commercial interests of oil and gas giant ExxonMobil.
The defamation suit filed in California has been launched against Rob Bonta, Californian Attorney General and several environmental groups.
ExxonMobil is demanding damages and a retraction of accusations about their advanced plastics recycling initiative, which they claim has since cost ExxonMobil contracts and affected future business prospects.
Forrest's Intergenerational Environment Justice Fund (IEJF) is named among the defendants, alongside the Sierra Club, San Francisco Baykeeper, Heal the Bay, and the Surfrider Foundation.
Forrest’s iron ore mining company Fortescue and charity foundation Mideroo are not being sued directly, but have been named in the lawsuit for their alleged ties to Forrest’s IEJF which Exxon claims is a subsidiary of Minderoo.
Forrest has responded to the legal action as “right out of the oil and gas industry playbook”.
His fund is accused of being party to defamatory comments, and serving “private foreign interests” through its relationship with Fortescue Metals.
Exxonmobil claims Forrest is a strident critic of the plastics industry, particularly ExxonMobil.
They claim this stems from a failed attempt to gain interest from the U.S. market for Forrest’s proposed levy on virgin plastics.
In 2021 Minderoo published a Plastic Waste Makers Index which alleged ExxonMobil is the largest producer of plastic polymers used to make single-use plastics.
ExxonMobil denied this claim and said it does not produce single-use plastics.
Related content