In a legal battle unfolding in a Washington court, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and its influential ruler are being sued for orchestrating a "dark public relations" campaign, accused of falsely tying an American oil trader, Hazim Nada, to terrorist financing.

Nada's lawsuit, filed in the District of Columbia, alleges that the UAE, from 2017 onward, funded a Swiss private intelligence firm, Alp Services, to conduct a widespread smear campaign damaging his reputation and causing financial ruin to his commodities trading firm, Lord Energy.

The lawsuit sheds light on a growing industry known as "disinformation-for-hire," where companies like Alp Services engage in spreading false narratives and influence operations on behalf of governments and paying clients.

Hazim Nada seeks $2.77 billion in damages, claiming that the disinformation campaign led to the bankruptcy of Lord Energy. The suit specifically names the UAE, its president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ), national oil company ADNOC, Emirati officials, and Alp Services as defendants.

According to the complaint, the UAE, in collaboration with Alp Services, allegedly paid individuals, including "journalists" and a professor at George Washington University, to tarnish the reputations of dozens of people, including Nada.

The legal action is based on thousands of documents obtained by anonymous hackers from Alp's internal servers. The documents reveal that Alp approached the UAE in 2017, offering to use "offensive viral communications" to discredit Nada and others perceived as adversaries of the oil-rich Gulf state.

The disinformation campaign aimed to cast doubts on Nada's background, suggesting that Lord Energy was a front for the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt in 1928.

Alp, boasting its expertise in "disinformation operations," claimed in exchanges with UAE representatives that its actions, including posing as Nada to unlawfully obtain confidential information, led to the bankruptcy of Lord Energy within two years.

The lawsuit contends that MBZ had ultimate approval authority over the disinformation operations, alleging that Lord Energy was perceived as a significant business threat by the UAE and ADNOC, prompting efforts to eliminate the growing rival.

In recent years, the UAE has faced accusations of "illicit influence operations" in the United States and Europe. Hazim Nada, the plaintiff, has handed over more than 8,000 internal documents from Alp to US law enforcement agencies.

The lawsuit also highlights the UAE's historical opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood, designated as a terrorist group in 2014. While Nada's father, Youssef, was associated with the Islamist group, the lawsuit asserts that Hazim Nada himself had no ties to it.

The legal action is seen in the context of the broader regional tensions, with the UAE's campaign against Gulf rival Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood group.