A British court on Wednesday approved the extradition of an Israelis charged by a New York prosecutor who carried out an operation “hacking fatalen” targeting environmental groups.
Prosecutors say the company run by 57-year-old Amit Forlit has made at least $16 million by hacking more than 100 victims and stealing confidential information working for major oil companies on behalf of the lobbying company.
Forlit's lawyers identified the company as Exxonmobil in a court filing in January. Exxon has been sued by Democratic lawyers and other local officials about its role in climate change. The lawsuit alleges that the company has covered up what it had known about climate change for decades in order to continue selling its oil. The lobbying company was identified as a DCI group in the filing.
The company was not involved and was unaware of the hacking, according to an Exxon statement. “If hacking is involved, we will condemn it on the strongest possible terms,” ​​the statement said.
DCI spokesman Craig Stevens said the company has directed its employees and consultants to comply with the law, and that none of the DCI's instructions were “involved in the hack that allegedly happened 10 years ago.”
DCI also described “many billionaires donors still sleeping in beds paid by the family's fossil energy legacy last fund, Peddle Conspiracy Theories,” as “a donor of radical anti-oil activists and their billionaires.”
It was a clear reference to the Rockefellers' role in supporting organizations advocating for climate change litigation. The heirs of John D. Rockefeller, who created oil fortunes over a century ago, lead the Foundation, the Rockefeller Family Fund, which today plays a key role in the movement to sue oil companies over climate change. Its director, Lee Wasserman, said he was targeted in a hacking campaign.
Forlit was arrested last year for a major ju trial in New York, for allegedly wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and for committing computer hacks that could carry long sentences. His lawyers had argued that he should not be handed over as he will not be subject to a fair trial in the United States due to a political fire over a climate change lawsuit.
They argued that “one reason to support the prosecution is to advance the political motivation behind the pursuit of ExxonMobil, and Forright takes the form of collateral damage.”
His lawyers also argued that Forlit would be at risk at the Metropolitan Detention Center, New York's only federal prison suffered from violence and dysfunction. The most well-known defendants have recently included Luigi Mangione, Sam Bankmanfried and Shawn Combs (also known as Puff Daddy and Diddy).
The Westminster Magistrate's court rejected these concerns. Forlit can appeal this decision. His attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
One of the targeted groups was a coalition of concern scientists who have long studied the role of the fossil fuel industry in what is called climate science disinformation. This group also conducts source attribution science. This is a practice that uses data to estimate the contributions of certain companies to the effects of global warming, such as sea level rise and wildfires. The work is cited in a lawsuit against the oil industry.
The organization learned hacking from a 2020 report by Citizen Lab, the University of Toronto cybersecurity watchdog group. The report found that hackers are targeting American nonprofits working on a campaign called #ExxonKnew.
A coalition of many employees of concern scientists has received suspicious emails in which hackers attempt to give up their passwords or install malicious software. Prosecutors at the US Lawyer's Office in the Southern District of New York have launched an investigation.
One of Forlit's Aviram Azari associates pleaded guilty in New York to crimes including computer breaching, wire fraud and identity theft and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Forlit operates two Israeli registered security and intelligence newsletter companies, one registered in the US. His clients included a Washington lobbying company working on behalf of “one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, centered around Irving, Texas, in connection with the ongoing climate change litigation that has been filed.” Exxon previously headquartered in Irving.
The lobbying company identified the target to Mr. Forlit, and then he or another person gave Azari the list. Azari owned another Israeli-based company and hired people from India to illegally access their accounts. These details were used to obtain documents to oil companies and the media saying that it “undermines the integrity of the civil investigation,” the filing said.
