NEW YORK ¨C A lawyer for Exxon Mobil Corp. mocked New York¡¯s fraud lawsuit against the oil giant, saying the state had falsely accused engineers and scientists of cooking up a massive scheme to mislead investors about the financial risks of climate change.
¡°It¡¯s a cruel joke, your honor, because the reputations of a lot of good people have been disparaged by the bringing of this complaint,¡± attorney Theodore Wells told a judge Thursday during his closing statement after a trial that spanned three weeks.
New York sued in 2018 after a three-year probe, claiming it found evidence that Exxon sought to use a pair of 2014 shareholder reports to trick investors into thinking the company was planning properly for a low-carbon future and inflating Exxon¡¯s value by as much as $1.6 billion.
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