Rex Tillerson Tied to Climate Report at Exxon Fraud Trial

"This case seeks redress for a longstanding fraudulent scheme by Exxon, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, to deceive investors and the investment community," the filing begins.

Tillerson insisted it was false.

“Throughout its fraudulent scheme, Exxon in effect erected a Potemkin village to create the illusion that it had fully considered the risks of future climate change regulation and had factored those risks into its business operations," another line states.

Tillerson bristled at that statement too.

"It was a real system," he said.

For all of the theatricality of the exchange, the trial against Exxon is not being heard by a jury. It is a bench trial in Manhattan Supreme Court before Justice Barry Ostrager, who agreed to divest from his Exxon stock before trial.

Wells asked a series of questions suggesting that greenhouse gases would not have been an issue for shareholders because the company never made decisions based on the cost of carbon.

“I don’t ever recall GHG costs being a determining factor in any decision that we made,” Tillerson said, using an abbreviation for greenhouse gas.

Conspicuously absent from the testimony was any mention of Tillerson’s alter ego, “Wayne Tracker.”

Tillerson admitted in a deposition this past summer that he used his [email protected] account as his primary email, and the state complained that Exxon failed to preserve any emails from that account before Aug. 18, 2015.

“This was caused by ExxonMobil’s failure to disable its automatic ‘file sweep’ deletion program for the Tracker Account, even though ExxonMobil turned off the automatic deletion program for every other custodian after receiving the subpoena,” Assistant Attorney General Samantha Liskow wrote in an Oct. 4 brief.

Ostrager denied the state’s motion asking him to draw an adverse inference from the failure to preserve those emails.

Despite the judge’s invitation to the state to renew that request at a later date, neither party asked about Wayne Tracker on the witness stand.

Exxon had been under increasing pressure to take action on climate change the year it released its reports.

In 2013, the year before, three pages of investors signed a letter to Tillerson asking to assess the risks of the climate crisis.

“We are an international group of institutional investors, collectively representing nearly USD 3 trillion in assets, writing to inquire about ExxonMobil’s exposure to these risks and plans for managing them,” the 72-shareholder collective wrote.

Though the group included New York State’s comptroller, New York City’s comptroller and California’s treasurer, Tillerson referred to them as “activist shareholders.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that," he said earlier. "That’s fine.”

Tillerson also struck a conciliatory tone when asked by Exxon’s attorney how the state’s allegations made him feel.

“When you become a CEO, you know you are going to have to become willing to take a lot of criticism,” Tillerson said, adding that was not true of the company’s other workers.

“That’s who I feel badly for,” he said.

Tillerson’s memory turned hazy throughout the state’s examination, with the CEO regularly answering questions with: “I don’t recall.” He used the phrase far less often under Exxon’s cross-examination.

As the widely anticipated testimony ended, court officers ordered the press and public to remain seated while leading the ex-business titan and U.S. presidential cabinet member out of the room. Reporters were unable to solicit comment on his testimony as he left the building.

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit