Andrew Forrest battles it out with oil giant ExxonMobil

When it comes to stirring up trouble in corporate America, Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest is gaining quite a reputation. Last year, the Australian mining tycoon turned green campaigner doubled down on his long-running war with Meta – suing the social media platform for failing to prevent numerous scams on its platforms. Now he is in the cross hairs of ExxonMobil, which has accused Forrest and others of orchestrating “smear campaigns” for “publicity and personal gain”.

Forrest himself is not a defendant in the defamation case, notes The Guardian. But he is “mentioned by name more than 20 times in the claim”, which targets a Forrest-linked charity – the Intergenerational Environmental Justice Fund (IEJF) – as well as several California-based environmental groups. In a nod to Maga’s preoccupations, Exxon alleges that Forrest harboured “a dream of upending the American oil and gas industry”. Twiggy’s reaction is to bring it on. He claims to be “personally delighted” by the lawsuit if it means that the fossil-fuel behemoth opens itself up to cross-examination in court. Worth around $16 billion, Forrest certainly doesn’t lack the funds to give Exxon a run for its money. Neither is he short of dedication and persistence. When waging war on Meta, he created “a mission-control-style room” staffed around the clock by cybersecurity professionals, says The Wall Street Journal. Doubtless he’ll deploy similar tenacity now.