"For years, the U.S. Justice Department has worked to unravel a global hacking campaign that targeted prominent American climate activists. Now, public tax filings reviewed by NPR reveal an unexpected link between the company that allegedly commissioned the attacks and some of the victims.
The connection emerges as another element in the complex story of how hackers were allegedly hired to attack parts of American civil society. The Justice Department investigation has focused recently on an Israeli private investigator named Amit Forlit whom federal prosecutors are trying to extradite from the United Kingdom for allegedly orchestrating the hacking. Prosecutors say the operation was aimed at gathering information to foil lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry over damage communities have faced from climate change.
Buried in the investigation's court filings are the names of one of the world's biggest publicly-traded oil companies and one of its longtime lobbyists: ExxonMobil and DCI Group. In an affidavit filed in the UK, a federal prosecutor identifies DCI as the firm that allegedly commissioned the hacking.
DCI was working for ExxonMobil when the attacks allegedly started around early 2016, according to federal lobbying records and Justice Department legal filings. At the same time, DCI was also consulting for New Venture Fund, a nonprofit known for working on progressive causes, including reducing the use of fossil fuels, according to tax filings NPR reviewed. During that period when DCI worked for both ExxonMobil and New Venture Fund, a senior advisor at the nonprofit was working with climate activists targeted by the alleged hacking operation."
Advertisement 
