Greenpeace has been ordered to pay more than $660 million in damages to the developer of the
Dakota Access Pipeline after the environmental group was found to have defamed the company and its
protestors incited illegal behavior.
The nine-person jury at the Morton County courthouse in Mandan,
North Dakota, delivered Wednesday's verdict in favor of Enegery Transfer, a Texas-based oil giant.
Greenpeace was found liable for defamation, trespass, nuisance, and civil conspiracy, among other acts, in an attempt to prevent the construction of the pipeline more than eight years ago. The group previously warned that it could face bankruptcy if it lost this case.
The activist group accused Energy Transfer of taking aggressive action against protestors and desecrating Native American burial grounds; the oil company claimed that Greenpeace was engaged in a “vast, malicious publicity campaign” against them in an attempt to tarnish its relationships with banks funding the pipeline.
“These are the facts, not the fake news of the Greenpeace propaganda machine,” Trey Cox, the lead attorney representing Energy Transfer, said in a press conference outside the courthouse.