The American branch of an international environmental group is suing two chemical companies, their PR firms, and the private investigators they hired allegedly for spying and racketteering.

“The message of this lawsuit is: when companies engage in espionage, they will be discovered and exposed. These unacceptable and underhanded tactics interfered with valuable work we were undertaking to protect public health and expose environmental crimes,” Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace USA, said in an advisory.