Notarized declaration by John Wilson regarding intense FBI abuse and harassment following his coverage of US NYSE listed US mining company Freeport McMoran’s activities and the US State Department investigation of the company. Wilson is a former Wall Street mining analyst and published a work report following eyewitness allegations of human rights abuses of indigenous protestors in the vicinity of Freeport’s massive Grasberg mine in West Papua, Indonesia.

Filed in:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

by BLHNY, 15 November 2021

Case 1:20-cv-10324-LAK-SDA Document 39 Filed 02/03/22

Synopsis:

Download the full Declaration and supporting exhibits here: Wilson Declaration 2021 FBI FOIA

https://www.dropbox.com/Wilson – Declaration 2021 FBI FOIA

After completing an MBA at Wharton business school in the USA I worked as a mining analyst for SG Warburg (now part of UBS) in New York on Wall Street in the mid-1990s. As part of my job, I followed Freeport McMoran, a large American mining company listed on the NYSE, and one of the companies in my portfolio of coverage. As indicated, the company owns the large Grasberg copper and gold mine in West Papua, Indonesia and at the time was under investigation by the US State Department following eye witness allegations it was involved in the killing of indigenous protestors as well as other human rights abuses.

On 12 March 1996, as a mining company analyst at S.G. Warburg & Co. Inc., I authored an investment analysis publication titled “Grasberg Closure Highlights Political Risks”. The full name of the publication was “FCX: Grasberg Closure Highlights Political Risks: S.G. Warburg & Co. Inc. – Research Notes”. My report noted OPIC’s cancellation of Freeport-McMoRan’s Grasberg mine insurance policy, the heightened political risks resultant from Freeport-McMoRan’s intimate relationship with the Indonesian military, and investigation by the U.S. Department of State. My report was originally published in First Call and was soon thereafter additionally distributed to fund managers globally (attached as “Exhibit 1” in my Declaration). Shortly after I asked a question about the State Department’s interim findings to the CEO Jim Bob Moffett at an analyst briefing in the Freeport boardroom in New Orleans. The matters affecting the Grasberg mine, West Papua, Indonesia and Freeport were political in nature and of legitimate concern to global investors. Immediately after the analyst question time I was threatened in the boardroom alcove, apparently by a federal agent, and the next thing I knew I had the FBI (and an Australian intelligence agency – ASIO/ASIS) interfering with my life and career. The FBI interfered in my career, professional, social and family networks, attempted to entrap me in a drug sting, DUI and other offences.

Following publication of this report and question to the CEO, I was subjected to a multiyear harassment campaign seeking to falsely portray me as an environmental extremist. Part of this harassment and intimidation included death threats against me. Many of my harassers identified themselves to me as being affiliated with the FBI (and in Australia ASIO/ASIS). The agencies’ surveillance of, and interference with, me and my family since then has been completely intrusive and unreasonable. I have been blacklisted and harassed in retribution. It appears this is intended to intimidate and silence not only me, but more broadly, civil society. Stemming from my work in the USA, and FBI retribution, Australian agencies are now party to this “payback”, and Australia’s oversight agencies are either wittingly or unwittingly complicit in this. I have not had accountability from any agency or oversight authority in Australia, I have heard no accusations against me, nor have I been able to test or challenge any “evidence” in person, to a standing royal commission or in a court of law with legal representation.

I moved back to Australia in 1999 to escape the intrusive interference I was experiencing in the USA. In 2004, when I was visiting NYC, an agent of the FBI, Steve Garber in a statement confirmed to me that I had been, and continued to be, targeted by the FBI on account of my work as an analyst that touched on human rights and environmental concerns associated with Freeport McMoran’s activities in West Papua, Indonesia, including eye witness allegations the company was involved with the abuse and killing of indigenous protestors.

Download the full Declaration and supporting exhibits here (dated 16 November 2021, Australia):

https://www.dropbox.com/Wilson – Declaration 2021 FBI FOIA

Preliminary Statement [excerpt]

This is an action under the Freedom of Information Act (³FOIA´), 5 U.S.C. ††552 et seq., seeking the production of agency records improperly withheld by Defendant United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (³FBI´), in response to requests properly made by Plaintiff John Wilson (³Mr. Wilson´).

Statement of Facts
Mr. Wilson is a former Wall Street mining analyst who served as an employee of SG Warburg from 1994 to 1997. Affidavit of John Wilson (³Wilson´), Declaration of Katherine ³Q´ Adams (³Adams´) Exh. A., at ¶ 4. In March of 1996, Mr. Wilson authored a report (³the Report´) that flagged concerns about the U.S. based mining company Freeport McMoran, including that the company was under investigation by the United States Department of State following the deaths of indigenous protestors at its Grasberg Mine in West Papua, Indonesia, among other human rights concerns. Wilson at ¶ 9; the Report, Wilson Exh. A. The 1996 allegations against Freeport McMoran were of significant interest to the U.S. government, as demonstrated by documents produced by the U.S. State Department (³DOS´) in 2014 in response to a FOIA request not presently at issue in the instant case. Wilson at 10, see also 2014 DOS FOIA Request and Subsequent Production on the Grasberg Mine, Wilson Exh. B.

Following the publication of Mr. Wilson¶s report, Mr. Wilson experienced a campaign of interference and harassment by individuals who identified themselves as working for the FBI, which was eventually a factor in Mr. Wilson¶s moving away from the United States following interference with his employment, social and professional networks, and privacy. Wilson at ¶14.

The individuals representing themselves to Mr. Wilson as working with or on behalf of the FBI gave Mr. Wilson the strong impression, and even directly told him on one occasion, that he was the subject of an FBI investigation due to the Report. Wilson at ¶¶ 38, 43, 51, and 52. One of the individuals subjected Mr. Wilson to intense questioning and represented that the interview was being undertaken at the behest of a U.S. government agency. Wilson at ¶¶ 54-55. The individual had a large amount of detailed private information on Mr. Wilson that suggested extensive research and investigation beyond the capacity of an individual in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Wilson at ¶ 97.

After more than a decade of experiencing alarming, intimidating, and harassing behavior, Mr. Wilson began undertaking efforts to understand the scope and nature of the FBI¶s investigation into him through a series of FOIA requests at issue in this litigation. The FBI¶s searches in response to Mr. Wilson¶s three requests have each been facially inadequate. The FBI failed twice to search the Sentinel database that had superseded the ACS database prior to even Mr. Wilson¶s first request and failed in all three searches to query either the ELSUR database or the informant databases DELTA, 127 and 270 files.

Download the full Declaration and supporting exhibits here (dated 16 November 2021, Australia):

https://www.dropbox.com/Wilson – Declaration 2021 FBI FOIA

[https://www.dropbox.com/s/jcjwj22de697zsa/John%20Wilson%20Declaration%20FBI%20FOIA%20case%202021%20-%20correction.pdf?dl=0]