The Wall Street Journal - 23.10.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Wednesday, October 23, 2019 |A10A

He said legislators, not a

commission, should make deci-

sions about such a system. Mr.

Flanagan and Assembly Minor-

ity Leader Brian Kolb, a Re-

publican from Ontario County,

have joined a lawsuit challeng-

ing the commission’s power to

alter the practice of fusion vot-

ing, which allows candidates

for office to combine votes re-

ceived on multiple-party ballot

lines in an election.

The suit, in state Supreme

Court in Niagara County, was

filed by leaders of the Working

Families and Conservative par-

ties. It asked a judge to declare

fusion voting a constitutional

GREATER NEW YORK

“Investors were led to believe

that Exxon applied the costs rep-

resented on the map,” said Kevin

Wallace, a lawyer from the New

York attorney general’s office.

In reality, Mr. Wallace said,

Exxon didn’t apply the costs.

The projected costs of cli-

mate-change regulation these

colors represent are at the

core of a case in which the

state attorney general has ac-

cused the oil giant of defraud-

ing investors. On Tuesday, the

New York state court judge de-

ciding the case heard opening

statements in what is expected

to be a three-week trial.

Last October, after a three-

year investigation, the New

York attorney general sued

Exxon for securities fraud. The

office said the oil giant told

investors it used one formula

to project future costs, but un-

disclosed internal guidance in-

structed staffers to make cal-

culations using lower figures.

In his remarks, Theodore

Wells, a lawyer representing

Exxon from firm Paul, Weiss,

Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison

LLP, called the attorney general’s

arguments sad, bizarre and

twisted. “This is like no other

securities-fraud case in the his-

tory of the country,” he said.

Prosecutors brought the case

under the Martin Act, a broad

antifraud statute that has more

commonly been used to investi-

gate Wall Street. The attorney

general’s office said the com-

pany’s misrepresentations

caused investors to overvalue its

stock, with the estimated dam-

age to shareholders between

$476 million and $1.6 billion.

Exxon has denied wrongdo-

ing and said reasonable inves-

tors wouldn’t expect to know

such proprietary details.

In his opening statement, Mr.

Wallace said the case is purely

about whether the company de-

ceived investors and whether

those alleged deceptions mat-

tered to how they valued Exxon

as a public company. He pre-

sented investor materials and

internal documents that he said

showed how Exxon told inves-

tors one thing about climate-

change accounting, while pri-

vately using different numbers.

The practice was approved

at the top, Mr. Wallace said.

One email, from an Exxon plan-

ning manager, referenced for-

mer Exxon Chief Executive Rex

Tillerson and the regulation

formulas. “Rex has seemed

happy with the difference pre-

viously,” read the email from

the manager. A spokeswoman

for Mr. Tillerson didn’t respond

to a request for comment.

Mr. Wells fired back that

the company had for years ac-

knowledged that climate

change was real and that gov-

ernments should address the

issue. Exxon has sophisticated

ways of calculating projected

impacts, he said. In some

cases, he said, the attorney

general had oversimplified and

conflated the way the com-

pany used different formulas.

Mr. Wells later brought up

what he called the elephant in

the room: politics. He said cli-

mate activists pushed state at-

torneys general, particularly

former New York Attorney

General Eric Schneiderman,

who launched the Exxon inves-

tigation, to bring the case. A

spokeswoman for Mr. Schnei-

derman declined to comment.

To illustrate how Exxon Mo-

bil Corp. allegedly deceived in-

vestors about its climate-change

accounting, a lawyer from the

New York attorney general’s of-

fice showed a packed Manhat-

tan courtroom Tuesday a multi-

colored world map the company

presented to shareholders.

In red were countries in-

cluding the U.S. and Canada

where Exxon said it was plan-

ning for tougher climate-

change regulation, showing

the number the company used

to calculate the higher cost.

BYCORINNERAMEY

Exxon Misled Investors, Court Told

Oil company attorney

fires back, calling the

New York case sad,

bizarre and twisted

Two members of the far-

right Proud Boys group were

sentenced on Tuesday to four

years in prison for their role

in a 2018 brawl following a

speech by the organization’s

founder at a New York City

Republican club.

John Kinsman, 40 years

old, and Maxwell Hare, 27,

were found guilty on Aug. 12

of attempted gang assault, at-

tempted assault and other

charges after prosecutors from

the Manhattan District Attor-

ney’s Office said they had at-

tacked members of the anti-

fascist group Antifa.

At the time of the Oct. 12,

2018, fight, New York Police

Department officers were es-

corting Mr. Kinsman, Mr. Hare

and other Proud Boys mem-

bers to a subway station on

Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Antifa members had been

outside the Republican club

protesting the speech given by

Proud Boys founder Gavin

McInnes.

Messrs. Kinsman and Hare,

who were sentenced in a crim-

inal court in Manhattan, each

faced up to 15 years in prison

for their most serious crime,

attempted gang assault.

Prosecutor Joshua Stein-

glass said at the sentencing

hearing that they should each

receive five years in prison.

The two defendants’ lawyers

asked for the minimum sen-

tence, said a spokesman for the

Manhattan district attorney.

Judge Mark Dwyer sen-

tenced each man to four years

in prison followed by five

years of post-release supervi-

sion, the spokesman said.

Messrs. Kinsman and Hare

are being held in custody fol-

lowing the sentencing, accord-

ing to the spokesman.

Defense lawyers for the

men didn’t respond to re-

quests for comment.

During the trial, the defense

lawyers said that members of

Antifa started the fight by

charging at the Proud Boys and

tossing a bottle toward them.

Prosecutors showed the

jury a surveillance tape that

captured Mr. Kinsman body-

slamming an Antifa member,

and repeatedly kicking him

against a gate. They also

showed footage of Mr. Hare

punching another Antifa mem-

ber multiple times.

Police never identified the

Antifa members who were at-

tacked despite numerous at-

tempts from law enforcement

to locate them.

Mr. McInnes, who is no lon-

ger affiliated with the Proud

Boys, called the sentencing of

Messrs. Kinsman and Hare a

“travesty of justice.”

“Antifa were picking fights

all night,” Mr. McInnes said in

an interview on Tuesday.

“They lost one at the end of

the night and now two men

are going to prison.”

Ten alleged members of the

Proud Boys, including Mr.

Kinsman and Mr. Hare, were

indicted in connection with

the fight. Most of the other

men charged pleaded guilty to

lesser crimes.

The Southern Poverty Law

Center has designated the

Proud Boys a hate group.

BYBENCHAPMAN

Proud Boys

Members

Get4Years

In Prison

Rockettes Step Up Rehearsals for the Radio City Holiday Show

LOOKING SHARP: The Rockettes practice for the ‘Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes.’ The annual show will run from Nov. 8 throughuntil Jan. 5.

JUSTIN LANE/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

celebrated that change.

“You can hear that every-

body wants to be here on Fri-

day and Saturday nights, and

you can see that everybody

had a great time here on Satur-

day and Sunday mornings,” she

said. “My kids need to sleep.”

Department of Sanitation

street sweepers will come be-

tween 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., a

later schedule than in the past.

Nightlife is important to

New York City’s culture, sup-

porting nearly 300,000 jobs

and generating $35.1 billion in

economic impact in 2016, the

mayor’s Office of Nightlife says.

Other businesses in the

neighborhood, however, say

the partying is hurting them.

Maryann Greco owns Adri-

enne’s NY, a bridal shop that

has been on Orchard Street for

decades. Last summer, a woman

who had been partying nearby

broke the door of her shop.

“She was so drunk, and she sat

with such a force, she crashed

through my window,” she said.

At World of Hats, Shemul

Zaman says he closes at 7 p.m.,

but “we come early morning,

and we see a mess...vomit, soda

cans, paper.”

“You think I want to clean up

somebody else’s mess after I

have to pay rent?”

right. A lawyer for the commis-

sion said in court papers that a

judge shouldn’t rule amid a

continuing public debate.

On Tuesday, the commission-

ers listened to testimony from

activists and elected officials,

then passed a resolution, 5-4, to

restrict the award of any

matching funds to money raised

from donors in a given district.

Democrats, including As-

semblyman Phil Ramos, of Suf-

folk County, spoke in favor of

public matching funds. Mr. Ra-

mos said it would increase

participation in politics and

allow lawmakers to spend less

time raising money.

New York Republicans on

Tuesday stepped up their at-

tacks against a state commis-

sion set up to create up a pub-

lic campaign-finance system,

questioning the cost of such a

system and the methods for

crafting it.

State lawmakers created

the commission as part of the

budget adopted in April. The

commission’s job is to develop

a public campaign-finance sys-

tem for state and local offices

throughout the state with an

annual cost of no more than

$100 million.

Senate Minority Leader John

Flanagan, a Long Island Repub-

lican, held a news conference

Tuesday outside a hearing of

the state Public Financing Re-

form Commission to warn of

the system’s potential costs.

“People want to see money

spent on education and health

care,” Mr. Flanagan said. “I

don’t believe for a second that

they’re going to cap it at $

million. If it’s oversubscribed,

the first thing the people who

invented this debacle will do is

say they need to get more

money into the system.”

BYJIMMYVIELKIND

Republicans Warn of Cost

Of Matching Funds System

New York City Mayor Bill de

Blasio wants partyers on Man-

hattan’s Lower East Side to

clean up their act.

On Tuesday he announced

steps to help improve the eti-

quette, cleanliness and safety

of the area that is renowned

for its nightlife, but where res-

idents often complain that rev-

elers make a lot of noise, leave

excessive trash and create traf-

fic jams into the wee hours.

The mess also attracts rats.

The initiative includes adver-

tisements with a cute night owl

saying: “Put on glitter, but

please don’t litter,” and “Your

night out is someone’s night in.”

The six-block area—encom-

passing Ludlow and Orchard

streets between Houston and

Delancey—has, by the mayor’s

count, more than 80 spots for

eating and drinking.

To ease honking and con-

gestion, “no standing” rules

will apply after midnight on

the west side of the streets and

after 7 p.m. on the east side

until morning, the plan says.

Alyson Palmer, a Lower

East Side resident who said

she loves the culture and vi-

brancy of the neighborhood,

BYLESLIEBRODY

ANDKATIEHONAN

Mayor to Late-Night

Partyers: Oh, Behave!

Senate Minority Leader John Flanagan at the Capitol in June.

HANS PENNINK/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Two men were

convicted in a 2018

attack on Antifa, the

antifascist group.

NY