An intelligence organization accused of infiltrating an agency seeking greater asbestos regulation globally must pay monetary damages.

According to an article by The Guardian, K2 Intelligence had covertly sent an agent posing as a documentary filmmaker sympathetic to the cause of increased asbestos regulation and the pursuit of a total product ban to infiltrate advocacy groups. Reportedly, the film maker was on the K2 payroll from 2012 to 2016.

Although no claim of guilt with regard to these accusations has been made, K2 Intelligence has settled with five asbestos regulation campaigners whose say that their work on this issue was compromised.

The asbestos regulation campaigners who filed suit in London’s high court are Laurie K., Rory O., Krishnendu M., Sugio F., and Harminder B.

The defendants who have come to this payment arrangement of an undisclosed amount include the K2 organization itself, its Executive Managing Director Matteo B., and the faux filmmaker Robert M.

Robert had reportedly claimed he was a filmmaker and his goal was to expose the hazards of a world without adequate asbestos regulation by making a documentary. He also allegedly indicated to the five campaigner that he wanted to start a charity whose aim was to ban asbestos use altogether.

Robert M. was actually an undercover agent for K2 and seeking confidential information from the group to report back to private asbestos-producing corporations.

During the four years he was involved with the asbestos campaign, he managed to secretly record conversations and interactions during meetings. Robert’s invoices to K2 totaled over $500,000 USD during that time, according to reports.

Legal proceedings began in this case in October 2016 when the five asbestos regulation campaigners sought help from the high court. They alleged breach of the Data Protection Act and misuse of private information resulting in injunctions against the intelligence company and Robert. Robert was reportedly forced to hand over 35,000 documents to the court , 650 of which had been released to his employers.

One of documents allegedly revealed that Robert told K2 just what his espionage plan was with regard to one of the five. According to the Guardian article, he said that he intended to cozy up “in the most genuine and heartfelt way possible, so that I can establish both an intellectual and emotional connection with [Laurie K.]”

By the following spring, the identities of Robert’s employers were revealed as Wetherby Select Ltd., a holding company in the British Virgin Islands, Nurlan O., a Kazakh asbestos industry lobbyist, and Daniel K. a U.S. citizen involved in Kazakhstan’s asbestos industry. Kazakhstan is one of the only remaining exporters of asbestos of significant size worldwide.

Asbestos regulation has been extended to a complete ban in 55 countries across the globe including the U.K. Surprisingly, the U.S. is not among the 55 who have banned the known carcinogen, but rather has moved recently to consider new uses of asbestos on a case-by-case basis. This decision would supersede previous, more stringent asbestos regulation.