Amit Forlit, who has been charged by U.S. prosecutors with running a so-called hacking-for-hire operation that targeted environmental groups, has been extradited from Britain to stand trial in New York.
Mr. Forlit, 58, is accused of running a sprawling enterprise that operated around the world, including in Russia, India and Dubai. A 2022 grand jury indictment unsealed on Friday charged Mr. Forlit with conspiracy to commit computer hacking, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud, which could result in up to 45 years in prison.
Prosecutors for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York confirmed Mr. Forlit’s arrival in New York in a letter to Judge Jesse M. Furman, writing that he had been arraigned before a magistrate judge.
From at least 2012 to 2019, Mr. Forlit orchestrated “massive” crimes against corporations, organizations and individuals, according to the indictment. He is accused of working closely with Aviram Azari, who was convicted of crimes related to hacking in New York in 2023 and released from federal prison last year, and others. The schemes generated “tens of millions of dollars” in unlawful proceeds, the indictment said.
Their clients included a lobbying firm in Washington that was working for “one of the world’s largest oil and gas corporations, with headquarters in Irving, Texas,” according to the indictment. A brief prepared by Mr. Forlit’s legal team as he fought extradition identified the lobbying firm as DCI Group and the company as Exxon Mobil, which at the time was based in Irving.
Exxon has been sued by Democratic attorneys general and other local officials over its role in climate change. The lawsuits claim the company covered up what it knew about climate change for decades to continue selling oil. There is a broad scientific consensus that the greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels like oil and gas are driving global warming.
The indictment chronicled emails between Mr. Forlit and the lobbying group about gathering intelligence for the company to use in political lobbying and legal proceedings. Mr. Forlit’s firms allegedly hired hackers to break into the accounts of their targets using methods like phishing emails, which are designed to trick the recipient into revealing sensitive information or installing malware.
Materials from hacked data were then used in court filings in the climate litigation, according to the indictment.
Craig Stevens, a spokesman for DCI, said on Monday that allegations of the firm’s involvement with hacking were “false and unsubstantiated.”
“We direct all our employees and consultants to comply with the law, even as radical anti-oil activists and their donors peddle conspiracy theories to distract from their own anti-American energy agenda,” Mr. Stevens said.
A spokeswoman for Exxon pointed to the company’s statement last year that it had no knowledge of any hacking. “If there was any hacking involved, we condemn it in the strongest possible terms,” the statement said.
Mr. Forlit, an Israeli citizen, was arrested in London in 2024. As he fought extradition, his lawyers argued that the case was politically motivated because of the nature of the debate over climate litigation in the United States. They also pointed to well-publicized problems, including violent episodes, at the facility he would most likely have been sent to, the Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn. The jail holds high-profile defendants including Nicolás Maduro, the former Venezuelan leader, and Luigi Mangione, who is accused of shooting and killing the UnitedHealthcare chief executive, Brian Thompson, in New York City in 2024.
Mr. Forlit was released after his arraignment in New York, prison records show. A lawyer for Mr. Forlit, Sabrina Shroff, a longtime federal public defender, declined to comment.
He is due back in court on April 16. His extradition to the United States from Britain was reported earlier by Inner City Press.
Kert Davies, a researcher at the nonprofit Center for Climate Integrity, was among more than 100 victims who were notified that they may have been the targets of hacking as prosecutors built their case against Mr. Azari years ago. “This is an important advance in this case that dates back to crimes committed starting exactly 10 years ago,” Mr. Davies said on Monday. “Hopefully as D.O.J. processes Mr. Forlit, we will learn something new and concrete about who all was involved.”
Karen Zraick covers legal affairs for the Climate desk and the courtroom clashes playing out over climate and environmental policy.
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