"Exxon Sues U.S. Over Fine Levied For Russia Deal Under Tillerson"

"WASHINGTON/HOUSTON - Exxon Mobil Corp sued the U.S. government on Thursday, blasting as 'unlawful' and 'capricious' a $2 million fine levied against it for a three-year-old oil joint venture with Russia's Rosneft.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday morning slapped the world's largest publicly traded oil producer with the fine for 'reckless disregard' of U.S. sanctions in dealings with Russia in 2014 when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was Exxon's chief executive.

The lawsuit and the Treasury's unusually detailed statement on Exxon's conduct represented an extraordinary confrontation between a major American company and the U.S. government, made all the more striking because Exxon's former CEO is now in President Donald Trump's Cabinet."

Yeganeh Torbati and Ernest Scheyder report for Reuters July 20, 2017.