Prosecute Exxon for alleged inflated value on oil assets
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods
Kaieteur News – A class action lawsuit was filed against ExxonMobil on Jan. 28 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleging that ExxonMobil violated federal securities laws by misleading investors about the valuation of certain company assets in the Permian Basin, and a petroleum province in the southwest United States.
The lawsuit, Yoshikawa v. Exxon Mobil Corp., et al. was published by Block & Leviton LLP, a company that represents investors and helps maintain the integrity of the US financial markets.
The plaintiff, Mendi Yoshikawa, obtained Exxon’s warranties for artificially inflated prices, the suit says, “and was damaged in disclosing the alleged corrective disclosures.”
It represents all other people in a similar setting.
“Throughout the Class Period,” the suit states, “Defendants made significant false and misleading statements about the Company’s business, operations and compliance policies. 
In particular, Defendants made false and / or misleading statements and / or failed to disclose that: (i) Exxon forced its employees to use unrealistic assumptions about the timelines for well drilling in the Permian Basin; (ii) the above assumptions served to artificially inflate the value of the Company’s well operations in the Permian Basin; (iii) the above conduct, when disclosed, subject Exxon to an increased risk of regulatory investigation and oversight; and (iv) as a result, the Company’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all material times. ”
The suit appears as defendants, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, Senior Vice President Andrew Swiger, and Vice President and Manager David Rosenthal.
The suit states, “The Individual Defendants had the power and authority to control the content of Exxon’s SEC filings, press releases and other market communications. Copies of Exxon’s SEC filings and press releases allegedly misleading were given before or shortly after publication, and they had the ability and opportunity to prevent or cause them to be published correction. Because of their positions with Exxon, and their access to relevant information available to them but not to the public, the Individual Defendants knew that the prejudicial facts identified here were not disclosed to the public and were hiding from the public, and that the positive comments. being made afterwards was substantially false and misleading. The Individual Defendants are liable for the false statements and omissions pleaded herein. ”