Two weeks ago, on February 16, in a case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, Justice Arthur Engoron of the New York State Supreme Court issued his decision ordering Donald Trump to pay some $355 million of “disgorgement” penalties. The stated basis for imposing these extraordinary penalties was Trump’s supposed “fraud” of exaggerating the value of some of his properties on financial statements submitted to a bank. No one had been damaged by Trump’s conduct, and the bank in question had neither complained nor sought any relief; however, the Attorney General asserted, and the judge agreed, that a legal basis existed for imposing the penalties under New York’s Executive Law Section 63(12), which allows the AG to prosecute “persistent fraud or illegality” without need for showing traditional elements of fraud like intent and damages, let alone a victim.

The issuance of Justice Engoron’s decision brought forth an immediate reaction from many quarters (including Manhattan Contrarian here). James had campaigned for office on a platform of “getting Trump,” a major political adversary, and had sought and obtained penalties far larger than any previously awarded under this statute, for conduct far less egregious. If the AG can use a broad statute to target a politically-disfavored individual like Trump in this way, how could any person doing business in New York think they are safe from similar legal abuse?

Recognizing the problem, our lightweight Governor Kathy Hochul went on a radio talk show on February 18 in an effort to reassure the New York business community. RealClearPolitics on February 19 has an audio clip and a partial transcript of Governor Hochul’s remarks. The key line was that Trump’s case was an “extraordinary, unusual circumstance,” and therefore “law-abiding and rule-following New Yorkers . . . have nothing to worry about because they’re very different than Donald Trump and his behavior.”

Law-abiding New Yorkers “have nothing to worry about”? Really, Governor Hochul? AG James waited all of ten days before making a complete fool of Hochul. On February 28 James dropped her latest over-the-top politicized case. The new target is something called JBS USA Food Company Holdings — the U.S. subsidiary of the world’s largest producer of beef. Here is the AG’s press release announcing the filling of the case; and here is a copy of the Complaint.

The crazed and delusional ambition evidenced in this case is even wilder than what was just seen in the Trump case. This time we’re not just going to keep a hated politician out of office; we’re going to save the planet!

From the press release:

JBS USA has claimed that it will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, despite documented plans to increase production, and therefore increase its carbon footprint. Beef production emits the most greenhouse gasses of any major food commodity, and animal agriculture accounts for 14.5 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021, the JBS Group, JBS USA’s global parent company, reported total global greenhouse gas emissions of over 71 million tons, more than the total emissions of some countries. Attorney General James seeks to stop JBS USA from continuing these false and misleading marketing practices, pay disgorgement of all ill-gotten profits, and penalties.

The heart of the alleged “fraud” is JBS’s claim that it plans to achieve “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. From Complaint, paragraphs 6 and 7:

6. Across its marketing materials, the JBS Group has made sweeping representations to consumers about its commitment to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, claiming that it will be “Net Zero by 2040.”

7. The JBS Group, however, has had no viable plan to meet its commitment to be “Net Zero by 2040.”

And from there, this case then turns into Trump 2.0. They have learned how to do this in the Trump case and they are following the form. Like the Trump case, this case is at least in theory civil, rather than criminal. The main legal basis? You guessed it — Executive Law Section 63(12). And the main relief sought? You guessed it again — “disgorgement.” Hey, if they can draw Engoron as the judge they might get an order requiring JBS to “disgorge” all of its revenues for the last 20 years. This time it will be in the multi-billions of dollars. That’ll teach them!

And so, Governor Hochul, is there anything “extraordinary and unusual” about JBS? Definitely not, any more than there was about Trump. Surely now every other beef company is in line for the same treatment, and every other food company right after that. And why stop there? Every company that has made any kind of promises of “net zero” by some far out date will be an obvious target. That’s a very large numbers of companies. And even the ones who haven’t promised “net zero” have almost always made some kind of promise of greenhouse gas reductions, none of which are achievable in the real world.

And guess what entity has made the most extreme promises of “net zero” that can’t possibly be met? That would be the State of New York. As discussed here in many prior posts (examples here, here and here), New York in 2019 adopted a Climate Act, committing the State to “net zero” emissions by 2050, and in 2022 adopted a Scoping Plan supposedly laying out how we are going to get there. But the Scoping Plan is completely delusional and deceptive, and does not come remotely close to setting forth a realistic way to get to net zero. It’s just like the delusional JBS promises!

So, Attorney General James, when are you going to bring your case under Executive Law 63(12) against New York State? I think you should demand “disgorgement” back to the taxpayers of all taxes paid at least since 2019, when they started making these fraudulent promises.

Meanwhile, it is high time for the business and legal communities of New York to start calling out our Attorney General for completely politicizing and degrading her office. You corporate CEOs and law firm leaders — do you think that if you just lie low the crocodile will eat you last? Your tolerance of this politicized AG is completely shameful.