California Attorney General Rob Bonta is pursuing litigation that could benefit a foreign billionaire after receiving campaign checks from lawyers working for the billionaire’s nonprofit organization, public records show. Those checks may not have been properly disclosed, according to the records.
In March 2024, a nonprofit organization funded by Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest began cutting checks to a law firm — Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP — for “legal services” in a “California lawsuit.”
In June of that year, lawyers at the firm made over $39,000 worth of campaign donations in less than a week to Bonta, according to state campaign finance records. Then, in September, Bonta filed a lawsuit alongside CPM and allied domestic environmental groups targeting Exxon Mobil, one of Forrest’s competitors in the low-carbon-energy sector, alleging that the oil and gas giant had misled the public about the capabilities of its plastic recycling operations.
Despite being registered as foreign agents, as of writing, some lawyers with CPM have not disclosed their contributions to Bonta to the Department of Justice, as is typically required.
Bonta and the environmental groups represented by CPM made their cooperation in the venture explicit, appearing at a joint virtual press conference to announce the lawsuits together.
The Intergenerational Environment Justice Fund, the Forrest-funded NGO bankrolling CPM’s lawsuit, however, has attempted to distance itself from Forrest.
“Intergenerational Environment Justice Fund is not a subsidiary of, owned, or controlled by Minderoo Foundation or Fortescue Metals Group,” the nonprofit organization told the Guardian in January 2025 after lawyers working for Exxon Mobil accused them of operating as a front group for Forrest’s interests.
The Minderoo Foundation is an Australian nonprofit organization founded and funded by Forrest and his wife, whereas Fortescue is Forrest’s corporation, which has recently pivoted to green energy investments such as hydrogen, an area where it competes with Exxon Mobil.
While the environmental charity insists that it is totally separate from Minderoo, the document CPM filed with the DOJ to represent the Intergenerational Environment Justice Fund noted that Minderoo “owns and controls” it. An amendment to that registration document revealed that Forrest and Minderoo fund IEJF through “charitable donations.”
Further cementing IEJF’s proximity to Forrest, all four individuals listed as directors of the charity by the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission have previously worked for the Australian billionaire. Angela Stavrianou worked in top legal roles at Fortescue for over a decade; Peter Huston was an executive at Fortescue; Sarah Parkinson was employed by Forrest; and Simon Clarke has worked as Forrest’s lawyer.
To date, IEJF has paid CPM over $500,000 for its legal services, according to documents filed with the DOJ.
Forrest has long harbored animosity toward Exxon Mobil.
“I just wanted to tell you about Exxon Mobil,” Forrest said during a 2023 speech to shareholders. “It is the company that faces multiple court actions for lying and misleading, firstly, its own government for decades and, secondly, the global public for decades, and [is] now being held to account in the judicial system for its responsibility for global heating.”
He went on to criticize Exxon Mobil’s blue hydrogen technology, which purports to use natural gas to produce a low-carbon source of fuel.
Exxon Mobil has struck back against Forrest and Bonta, filing a defamation lawsuit against the attorney general and IEJF.
“The IEJF retained U.S. lawyers to engage in ‘political activities,’ including filing a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil,” the suit reads. “Cotchett signed up the US Proxies — Defendants Sierra Club, Surfrider, Heal the Bay, and Baykeeper — as nothing but local placeholders, acting for the foreign business interests competing in U.S. courts rather than the marketplace.”
“Fortescue appears to have adopted a novel strategy for competing against American oil-and-gas producers like Exxon Mobil,” the oil giant’s complaint continued. “Having failed to successfully compete against Exxon Mobil in the marketplace, Fortescue has, on information and belief, orchestrated a campaign to compete by turning the wheels of American justice to the company’s self-interested purposes.”
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Bonta and those close to Forrest have dismissed the Exxon Mobil suit as a distraction.
A spokesperson for the California Department of Justice, for instance, said the litigation was “another attempt from Exxon Mobil to deflect attention from its own unlawful deception,” while Fortescue rejected “assertions that [Fortescue] has orchestrated litigation against Exxon to gain a competitive advantage.”
Bonta, for his part, is accused of defaming Exxon Mobil to solicit political donations from Texas residents in an email he sent out promoting his lawsuit against the corporation. A court recently denied Bonta immunity on the grounds that he is a public official, a decision the state attorney general has since appealed.
Bonta’s office, IEJF, and CPM did not respond to requests for comment.