During June 2024, California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s re-election committee received $39,000 in contributions from attorneys at the law firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP. This took place over a six-day period ending June 18, 2024. Such contributions are legal and common in American politics, as lawyers often donate to campaigns for judges, prosecutors, and attorneys general.
Separately, between April and September 2024, Cotchett reported accepting nearly $250,000 from the Intergenerational Environment Justice Fund (IEJF), an Australian advocacy nonprofit. The payments were disclosed to the U.S. Department of Justice in October 2024 under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). These transactions are permitted under U.S. law; foreign entities can hire American lawyers.
Nearly $100,000 of the funds from IEJF were paid to Cotchett during a two-week period through June 28, 2024. This timing overlaps with when Cotchett attorneys made political donations to Bonta’s campaign.
The FARA filing by Cotchett also identifies IEJF as owned and controlled by the Minderoo Foundation—an NGO established and funded by Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest. Forrest has criticized ExxonMobil for its role in global warming and plastic pollution and has invested in alternative energy projects such as green hydrogen.
A December 2023 contract between IEJF and Cotchett tasked the law firm with investigating and prosecuting lawsuits against companies involved in producing plastics used in single-use products.
On September 23, 2024, Cotchett filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil on behalf of four U.S.-based environmental groups: Surfrider Foundation, Sierra Club, Heal the Bay, and San Francisco Baykeeper. According to a statement from Cotchett: “Exxon systematically led the public to believe that plastic waste is easily and safely disposable via recycling, incineration or landfills.”
However, independent analysis cited by Our World in Data indicates that plastic becomes an environmental problem primarily when it is not recycled or properly disposed of (https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution).
After this lawsuit was filed—and following receipt of all payments from IEJF—Cotchett submitted its FARA disclosure about its work for the Australian group. Meanwhile, IEJF denied being controlled by Minderoo but did not dispute having links to Forrest.
On the same day as Cotchett’s lawsuit against ExxonMobil was announced publicly—a fact noted by Cotchett—Attorney General Bonta also filed a similar suit against ExxonMobil.
ExxonMobil has since responded with a defamation countersuit naming Bonta, the four environmental nonprofits involved in Sierra Club v. ExxonMobil, and IEJF. In its complaint Exxon stated: “It is also a case about the corrupting influence of foreign money in the American legal system and about the sordid for-profit incentives and outright greed that tries to hide behind so-called public impact litigation.”
Despite these financial connections coinciding with legal action against ExxonMobil—and while no evidence has emerged that any laws were broken—the sequence of events raises questions about transparency around campaign finance involving foreign-linked funding sources.
“It is generally illegal for an Australian NGO (or any foreign entity) to contribute to a California political campaign due to strict U.S. and California laws prohibiting foreign contributions to political campaigns,” according to Grok.
Neither Attorney General Bonta nor representatives from Cotchett have issued public statements detailing these financial ties beyond what is required by law.
