Posted on 11/06/2015 1:39:29 AM PST by Brad from Tennessee
Could ExxonMobil be guilty of fraud for taking a public stance on global warming? New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman thinks so, and news that he’s demanded years of records from the oil giant shows how creative some lawyers have become in using litigation to try and achieve the sort of policy changes once left to legislators.
The New York Times reports Schneiderman issued a subpoena Wednesday evening seeking emails, financial records and other information about the company’s activities around climate science since the late 1970s, “including a period of at least a decade,†the Times says, “when ExxonMobil funded groups that sought to undermine climate science.†The probe is focused on whether the company adequately warned investors about potential financial risks stemming from tighter controls on fossil fuels, the Times said, citing unnamed figures who shared the details of the AG’s investigation with the paper on condition of remaining anonymous.
It’s an interesting question whether a company can break the law by financing research that it hopes will influence the public debate on a subject that affects its business. If the AG’s target is disclosures to investors, as the unusually well-informed Times reporters suggest, that raises the question of how a company can adequately disclose the risks associated with global warming when the sources and magnitude of the problem are still being studied.
“Public interest groups cannot be permitted to define what is a risk factor – securities laws do,†said Jacob Frenkel, a former Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement attorney now with Schulman Rogers in Potomac, Md. “What’s next? Advocates for electric cars positing a mandatory risk factor disclosure that gas-driven cars may become obsolete?â€
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
NYS issued a fracking ban based on bogus research. Investigate that.
The new Torquemada emerges...
With the full force of The Obama behind them these lawyers have the same mandate Isabella gave Torquemada.
Will Shakespeare was right.
First, kill the lawyers.
I have met very few who deserved any respect whatsoever.
I have more respect for a pimp or hooker, at least they are honest about what they are.
The biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the public by government and quasi-public groups is AGW. It’s cost us tens of billions of dollars and had negative benefits.
When do we get to haul all of them into court for fraud, misrepresentation, and defamation?
“If this suit goes forward, both Nike and other potential speakers, out of reasonable caution or even an excess of caution, may censor their own expression well beyond what the law may constitutionally demand. That is what a “chilling effect†means. It is present here.”
That would be a pre-John Roberts Supreme Court. I’m sure
Roberts will find the Obama administration perfectly within
it’s rights to litigate compliance with another hoax. And do
it without any debate on the validity of the science behind
the hoax itself. After all Roberts did rule that CO2 was
a pollutant setting the stage for all of this.
I want a Constitutional amendment requiring all new legislation to be written in plain English and to sunset, without any extensions allowed, in 10 years.
Since lawyers can’t write plain English, they will become obsolete.
OK!! Everybody pay attention!
Lesson for today:
1. The sun is 1,300,000 times as big as the earth.
2. The sun is a ball of fire that controls the climates of all its planets.
3. The earth is one of the sun’s planets.
4. The earth is a speck in comparison to the size of the sun.
5. Inhabitants of the earth are less than specks.
Study Question: How do less-than-specks in congress plan to control the sun?
I agree with you, but judges refuse to even look at anything that isn’t written in lawyerese.
I know because I have been through it.
I also agree about each law having a defined shelf life.
If congress wants to reauthorize a law, they should be required to resubmit it and be required to pass it by a two thirds majority.
Congress should also never be exempt from any law or regulation.
Make them live under the laws they vote on.
Just like us little people.
This not only promises to hobble E-M but will add to the impetus for industry to abandon the USA for safer climes in which to operate and will contribute to the reduction of the middle class to poverty. Hussein &C intend to make American society resemble Soviet society fifty years ago by the end of next year. That sounds hyperbolic because most of us still own cars and can eat in restaurants from time to time but this thing is moving awfully fast now and is accelerating at a prodigious rate.
Ka-ching!
Lawyer’s gotta have the second home and the yacht.
Exxon trades today for about $84.50 a share. 30 years ago, the equivalent price was about $2.50. Just how much injury does the AG think the shareholders have suffered?
"Creative Lawyering" my bare, pasty white backside!
Clinton Calls for Exxon Probe After Company Cuts Off Foundation Funding
Sounds like "Her Thighness" sent "the hounds" after them.
He's in the "water bucket brigade"!
Hillary Clinton Has a Lot of Big Names on Her New York Leadership Team
View the full list of Ms. Clinton's New York backers below:
Snip...Attorney General Eric Schneiderman
Thy really believe nobody can see through their veil of subterfuge.
“...this thing is moving awfully fast now and is accelerating at a prodigious rate.”
The most ironic thing is that a large percentage of the electorate voted for it without knowing the consequences and worst of all, they think it’s cool.
IMHO
This could get interesting as Exxon could prove in court that AGW is both a conspiracy and a fraud.
Using the word “creative” in the same sentence with “lawyer” means that someone is lying, and always for money and/or power.
And I am a lawyer!
Come on NY - you’ve got to stop electing these clowns!!!!
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