Big Oil’s Cybermercenary Lobbyists Exposed

The public affairs and lobbying firm DCI Group is under investigation by the FBI for its role in hacking and leaking emails from environmental activists on behalf of its client Exxon Mobil, Reuters reported this weekend. 

Beginning in 2015, the company allegedly compiled names of targets and provided them to Israeli private detective Amit Forlit, who then outsourced the hacking. The operation, which DCI nicknamed “Fox Hunt,” was designed to dig up compromising material on activists and others who were preparing to launch lawsuits against the oil company over claims that it had  deceptively marketed fossil fuels while concealing that they knew they would exacerbate global warming, the report says.

The oil industry and its defenders are still using the hacked materials to this day. Reuters found that an amicus brief filed to the Supreme Court by the Exxon Mobil-funded National Association of Manufacturers cited a hacked internal memo from activists outlining their litigation strategy as part of its argument for why the court should throw out climate lawsuits that were brought by the city of Honolulu. 

DCI Group is led by former Republican political operatives Brian McCabe and Justin Peterson, and specializes in coalition building, media relations, and opposition research to help clients develop an “outside game” for winning their policy goals. While the company does lobby the government directly, it is primarily focused on developing and executing less conventional influence strategies, such as activating constituents and influencers to carry out their clients’ objectives. 

Astroturfing for Telecom

Exxon Mobil is alleged to have paid DCI Group more than $10 million per year for its services, but the oil company is not the firm’s highest-paying client in terms of money spent on lobbying. According to a tally kept by DeSmog, DCI Group’s biggest lobbying client from 2001 to 2016, the years when it was most active in lobbying, was Verizon, and also among its top clients have been the US Telecom Association trade group and AT&T. Internal Revenue Service filings show that DCI Group was also employed for years by telecom industry group Broadband for America. 

In 2014, when the Federal Communications Commission was considering so-called “net neutrality” regulations, journalists scrutinized DCI Group for its possible role in creating phony coalitions opposing the proposal, and for paying people to spout telecom industry talking points during media appearances. 

Vice reported that small businesses and community groups were “duped” into becoming coalition members of Broadband for America as the group was lobbying against net neutrality on behalf of its supposed 300+ members. Vice contacted companies that were listed as coalition members and found that several said they had never even heard of net neutrality and had no position on the matter. Vice also reported that anti-net neutrality media commentators such as the editor of news website Politic365 admitted to being paid by DCI Group, though they denied that the money was given in exchange for them espousing the talking points of the consultancy’s telecom clients. 

Net neutrality activists have also faced well-documented attempts to hack into their emails, similar to what DCI Group is alleged to have done on behalf of Exxon Mobil. In 2017, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reported on an operation it dubbed "Phish for the Future,” in which activists affiliated with the groups Free Press and Fight for the Future faced repeated spearphishing attempts, all from the same attackers. The attacks were designed to access accounts on Google, Dropbox, and LinkedIn, and at least one email account was compromised, EFF reported. 

“The sophistication of the targeting, the accuracy of the credential phishing pages, the working hours, and the persistent nature of the attacks seem to indicate that the attackers are professionals and had a budget for this campaign,” EFF reported. “The working hours, as determined by the times the emails were sent seem to indicate that the attackers are working for hire out of an office, they took Saturday and Sunday off. Their hours are consistent with working hours in the UTC+3-5:30 timezone.”

DCI’s Other Clients

While its federal lobbying roster has shrunk over the years, DCI Group has been retained by many nonprofits and trade groups, according to a review of tax filings. 

One noteworthy client has been the New Venture Fund, a large charity and fiscal sponsor organization in the liberal “dark money” network surrounding Arabella Advisors. The New Venture Fund is a sister of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a social welfare group that donates millions of dollars each election cycle to Democratic super PACs like House Majority PAC, Future Forward, and Black PAC. In recent years, New Venture Fund has passed tens of millions of dollars per year to Sixteen Thirty Fund, according to tax filings. According to OpenSecrets, New Venture Fund “has fiscally sponsored at least 80 groups and acted as a pass-through agency funneling millions of dollars in grants for wealthy donors to opaque groups with minimal disclosure.” 

From 2002 through 2021, New Venture Fund paid DCI Group more than $12 million in consulting fees, according to Influence Watch. 

Other nonprofits that have paid DCI Group for its services in recent years include Protect Internet Freedom Inc, the American Financial Services Association, Pharmacy Choice and Access Now, Reforming America’s Taxes Equitably, and the Electric Power Supply Association.  

DCI Group picked up $339,000 in state lobbying for the conservative nonprofit Common Sense Leadership Fund (CSLF) in 2022, according to tax records. In 2021 and 2022, the advocacy group, which advocates to lower taxes and cut regulations, spent tens of millions of dollars going after vulnerable House and Senate Democrats in the midterm elections, making it at one point the top-spending national advocacy group. CSLF’s president is Kevin McLaughlin, a former lobbyist for groups like the Business Roundtable and former executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.