By Kevin McCauley
Greenpeace claims in a complaint filed today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that Ketchum and Dezenhall Resources engaged in an unlawful campaign to steal confidential information about the environmental group on behalf of fellow co-defendants and chemical giants Dow Chemical and Sasol North America.
It sees violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in the alleged effort to undermine Greenpeace from 1998 to 2000 while it was charging Dow and Sasol with polluting the environment.
Ketchum spokeswoman Jackie Burton, who responded to an inquiry to agency CEO Ray Kotcher, said: "We understand that a complaint has been filed. We have not formally received the papers yet and, therefore, cannot speak to any of the specifics in the complaint. We will review it thoroughly and address it in the appropriate venue. As a company that views integrity as fundamental to our values, we take this matter seriously."
Dezenhall declined to comment.
Greenpeace alleges that the defendants enlisted the services of a private security firm, Beckett Brown International to engage in unlawful surveillance activity that featured "dumpster dives" (D-Lines).
According to the complaint: "Defendants obtained a steady stream of inside information from Greenpeace as a result of BBI stealing confidential documents and internal records from dumpsters and recycling bins located at Greenpeace’s offices."
Greenpeace contends that each D-Line "involved trespassing on private property and stealing documents where Greenpeace had a reasonable expectation of privacy."
The complaint says the defendants’ "U Street Project Objectives" (Greenpeace was headquartered on U St. in Washington, D.C.) aimed to obtain financial information about funding including donors and "money trails."
Greenpeace says some of the documents illegally obtained including its global warming strategy, genetically modified organisms campaign, climate campaign ship tour draft schedule, and preservation of whales campaign. It sees a scheme that "in all likelihood, included the unlawful breaking and entering into Greenpeace offices" to secure documentation.
According to the complaint, BBI representatives met with Ketchum and Dow executives in Annapolis on July 28, 1999 to discuss ongoing surveillance of Greenpeace.
Following the meeting, "Ketchum established the ‘Dow Global Tracking System’ and created a 'Dow Chemical Trends Tracking Team' comprised of employees of BBI, Dow, Ketchum and research firm Allis Information Management."
Greenpeace is looking for an injunction enjoining defendants from "committing the trespass, intrusion, conversion, trespass to chattel, misappropriation of trade secrets and RICO violations."
It wants punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial.
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