On October 7, 2011, Greenpeace filed a lawsuit in Superior Court for the District of Columbia against two large chemical companies for activities that amount to corporate spying and espionage.
Greenpeace is the largest independent direct-action environmental organization in the world. It is headquartered in Washington D.C.
The lawsuit alleges Chemical companies “Dow Chemical and Sasol” (formerly CONDEA Vista), through the PR firms Dezenhall Resources (Nichols Dezenhall at the time) and Ketchum, hired private investigators from the firm Beckett Brown International (BBI) to spy on Greenpeace from 1998 to 2011.
The suit charges the defendants stole thousands of documents, intercepted phone call detail records (CDRs), trespassed and conducted unlawful surveillance and theft of confidential information related to Greenpeace’s public interest work.
It noted that most of BBI executives and employees included former officers of the Secret Service and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
See video: Investigating Corporate Espionagehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw1O_Fm5Vu8
BBI, the lawsuit alleges engaged in a pattern of practice of clandestine and unlawful activities that has included: “misappropriation and theft of confidential information and trade secrets, unlawful surveillance, misuse of law enforcement personnel and in all likelihood unlawful breaking and entering into Greenpeace offices and other locations.”
See BBI exposed:http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Beckett_Brown_Internationa l
The lawsuit alleges the use of “surreptitious and deceitful methods of data collection, including but not limited to “pilfering documents awaiting private trash and recycling collection, placing undercover operatives with groups, using false pretenses to case officers, procuring phone records and infiltrating meeting and electronic mail networks…”
Records reveal that BBI relied on a network of subcontractors including “off duty police officers” with Washington D.C. and Baltimore to carry out this work.
BBI engaged in what is called in the business: “D-lines”.
D-lines were actions involving the theft of a “steady stream” of documents obtained through stealing confidential documents and internal records from dumpsters and recycle bins or obtained under false pretenses.
Each D-Line required both a trespass on private property and stealing documents.
The lawsuit alleges BBI conducted over 100 D-Line investigations of Greenpeace.
See article: Update: Green Spies, Black Opshttp://www.motherjones.com/environment/2008/07/update-green-spies-black-ops
BBI also allege the defendants engaged in physical surveillance and intrusion.
That included “electronic surveillance and wire tap information.”
In one case, BBI executives hired “Tri West Investigations” to procure the phone records of employees at Greenpeace.
Mention was also made of a computer program called “Data Interception by Remote Transmission” (DIRT), which allows corporate spies to monitor and intercept data from and private computer in the world at any time.
(Source: DC Superior Court, Case number 0008036-11http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/Global/usa/planet3/PDFs/SpyGate/DC%20Superior%20Court%20Complaint.pdf).