Rex Tillerson accused of using email alias to discuss climate, fails to disclose

While CEO of Exxon, current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used an email address with the pseudonym “Wayne Tracker” from 2008 to 2015, the New York attorney general’s office said in a letter on Monday. Tillerson’s middle name is Wayne.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been investigating whether Exxon misled shareholders and the public about “the impact of climate change on its business, including on its assets, reserves, and operations”. A petition was filed back in October 2016, alleging violations of New York State consumer, business, and investor-fraud laws. Despite a subpoena issued to Exxon back in August, 2016, the alias was not disclosed as being connected to Tillerson.

In a letter to the court Monday, the AG requested a conference to discuss, among other things, the discovery of alias email and demanding access to the missing documents. According to Senior Enforcement Counsel John Oleske, “neither Exxon nor its counsel have ever disclosed that this separate email account was a vehicle for Mr. Tillerson’s relevant communications at Exxon, and no documents appear to have been collected from this email account, which also does not appear on Exxon’s list of preserved custodial sources or its privilege logs. The same goes for thirty-four additional email accounts specifically assigned to top executives, board members, or their assistants.”

The attorney general has asked a judge to order Exxon to show if documents from the “Wayne Tracker” email and 34 other accounts for Exxon executives and board members had been preserved.

Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers responded that, “The email address, [email protected], is part of the company’s email system and was put in place for secure and expedited communications between select senior company officials and the former chairman for a broad range of business-related topics.”

The case is People of the State of New York v. PricewaterhouseCoopers and Exxon Mobil Corporation, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No. 451962/2016.

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