WASHINGTON - A leading American university was sued on March 27 over a disinformation campaign allegedly financed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), accused of seeding false narratives that linked academics to a radical group in the Middle East.

Dr Farid Hafez, an Austrian political scientist, filed the US$10 million (S$13.48 million) lawsuit against George Washington University (GWU) and Dr Lorenzo Vidino, the director of its programme on extremism.

It is the second such case in US courts in 2024 that sheds light on what researchers call a lucrative “disinformation for hire” industry that peddles false information and influence operations on behalf of paying clients.

Foreign governments have long been accused of buying influence with large donations to US universities and think-tanks.

But Dr Hafez’s lawsuit takes it further, accusing a premier higher education institution of involvement in damaging reputations on behalf of a sovereign state.

The suit, which was filed in District Court in Washington, alleges that “GWU and Vidino engaged in a well-cloaked conspiracy to defraud authorities, academia and the fourth estate”, a term used to refer to the press, while “holding themselves out as independent and objective academic actors”.

It also names as a defendant Alp Services, a Geneva-based private intelligence firm said to be on the UAE’s payroll, accusing it of shadowy activities such as paying journalists and academics including Dr Vidino to smear the Gulf state’s enemies.

Dr Vidino is accused of using his influential position at the university to target academics such as Dr Hafez, businesses and charities by publishing false reports that linked them to the Muslim Brotherhood, designated as a terrorist organisation by the UAE.

“Vidino was a hired gun selling and repackaging unverified rumour and gossip with the veneer of academic objectivity and scholarship, and with a mind towards ruining individuals and institutions,” the suit says.

Dr Hafez, a visiting professor at Williams College in Massachusetts, was detained in 2020 during Operation Luxor, a series of police raids against Austrian Muslims and businesses.

No one who was implicated was convicted, and the operation was ruled unlawful in 2021.

Dr Hafez said he was ensnared in the police action in Austria because of a report by Dr Vidino.

A contractual agreement seen by AFP shows Dr Vidino was paid to provide “leads of interest” to Alp, which the Swiss company used as part of its apparent disinformation operation on behalf of the UAE.

“My client’s life was destroyed by the activities conducted against him by GWU, Vidino and Alp Services,” Mr David Schwartz, Dr Hafez’s New York-based lawyer, told AFP.

He added that his client was seeking US$10 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

GWU did not respond to a request for comment on the legal action or Dr Vidino’s current status with the university.

Dr Vidino also did not comment.

Dr Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, from Rice University’s Baker Institute, said: “Even if the university and the programme were unaware of actions undertaken in a private capacity, it may well be the case that the prestige of the affiliation added to the perceived credibility of any disinformation.”

Dr Hafez’s legal action follows a New Yorker magazine article in 2023 that revealed how Alp – contracted by the UAE – smeared oil trader Hazim Nada, ultimately bankrupting his business, Lord Energy.

In January, Mr Nada sued the UAE, its President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan – often known as MBZ – its national oil company Adnoc, Emirati officials, Alp and Dr Vidino in a Washington court.

The latest lawsuit spotlights the possible influence of foreign money in American universities, said Mr Benjamin Freeman, director of the Democratising Foreign Policy programme at the Quincy Institute.

“US universities receiving millions and even hundreds of millions of dollars from authoritarian regimes are going to be a lot less likely to offer critical commentary of those regimes,” Mr Freeman said. AFP