A year after California’s plastic recycling fraud lawsuit was announced during Climate Week in New York City, the billionaire Rockefeller network that helped script the case is openly taking credit for it.  

According to new reporting from the Washington Free Beacon, RFF director Lee Wasserman publicly claimed during a NYC Climate Week session that the group’s work led directly to Bonta’s lawsuit.  

Wasserman described how RFF, along with the activist group Beyond Plastics, “worked closely” with the RFF-funded Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) to produce a lengthy report that Bonta’s complaint later relied on, the Free Beacon reports: 

“According to RFF director Lee Wasserman, RFF and activist group Beyond Plastics ‘worked closely’ with the RFF-funded Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) in early 2024 to develop a lengthy first-of-its-kind report outlining how ExxonMobil had allegedly deceived the public about plastic pollution for decades. Wasserman, who made the remarks during a little-noticed Climate Week NYC panel last month, boasted that Bonta then relied on that report when he filed his lawsuit months later in September 2024. 

‘Surprise, surprise—shortly after that report came out, the attorney general of California brought litigation for fraud and deception against Exxon based on their lying about plastic,’ Wasserman remarked at the panel discussion, a transcript of which was reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.” [emphasis added] 

Except it’s not a surprise at all. We’ve seen this movie before.  

Read the full post at EIDClimate.org.