New York AG: Exxon Climate Fraud Investigation Nearing End

At a hearing to force the oil giant to turn over more records, the attorney general’s office said it had found 'smoking guns’ suggesting Exxon misled investors.

A New York state judge ordered ExxonMobil on Wednesday to quickly turn over some of the documents sought by the state attorney general's office, which is investigating whether the oil giant misled investors about the risks posed by climate change.

But Justice Barry R. Ostrager allowed the company to withhold one batch of the financial records, saying Exxon could instead respond to questions from the attorney general's investigators about their contents.

Exxon agreed to turn over other records that it had provided to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which earlier this month ended its own investigation into the company's climate accounting practices without taking action.

The mixed instructions came at a hearing in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan, where Ostrager began by urging prosecutors to quickly wrap up their investigation and decide whether to press charges against Exxon or move on.

"This cannot go on interminably," he said.  The company has provided millions of pages of documents and answered questions over some three years of investigation, Ostrager said.  "It's not my place to tell you when an investigation ends, but it is my place to put an end date on the requests for information and the filing of a complaint."

Read more at New York AG:  Exxon Climate Fraud Investigation Nearing End