Chevron Ecuador Case | The Chevron Ecuador Lawsuit Trial & Chevron's Views & Opinions | The Amazon Post

This blogger writes about Stratus Consulting and the Chevron Ecuador lawsuit. Stratus is a named defendant in the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) suit Chevron filed in February 2011:

For several years, California-based Chevron Corporation has been fighting against what has long appeared to be a rather bogus lawsuit on behalf of Ecuadorian plaintiffs (and the Ecuadorian government, driven by American trial lawyers, in the course of which the specter of potential fraud on the part of those attorneys has been brought up repeatedly by judges and others).

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More coverage of this development in the Chevron Ecuador lawsuit. This article includes excerpts from the judge’s opinion, referencing praise he received from the 2nd Circuit for the “exemplary manner in which the able District Judge has discharged his duties” :

A federal judge defended his impartiality in a lawsuit that pits Chevron against the group of Ecuadorean natives it says won an $18 billion judgment through fraud.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan is presiding over Chevron’s February lawsuit, which accuses the Ecuadoreans and their advocates of trying to procure an extortionate judgment against, or settlement from, the oil giant.

Two weeks after filing, a judge in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, found Chevron liable to the tune of $18.2 billion for massive oil contamination in the Amazon, allegedly caused by Texaco before Chevron acquired that company in 2001.

Chevron says it will not pay, arguing that the state-owned oil refinery is the true culprit, that Texaco was previously released of liability and that the judgment was achieved through a fraud on the courts.

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More coverage of the New York judge who issued a preliminary injunction against the collection of any judgment against Chevron in Ecuador:

In March Judge Kaplan, saying the judgment may have been secured by a fraud in Ecuador orchestrated in part by lead Lago Agrio plaintiffs’ lawyer Steven Donziger, issued a preliminary injunction against attempts to collect on the $18 billion judgment anywhere in the world.

Judge Kaplan last year ordered filmmaker Joseph Berlinger to turn over outtakes from “Crude,” a documentary film on the Lago Agrio litigation solicited by Mr. Donziger. He later enforced subpoenas against Mr. Donziger, including one to depose the controversial attorney.

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Update in Chevron Ecuador case regarding the court that blocked enforcement of the judgment:

The U.S. judge who has temporarily blocked enforcement of an $18 billion judgment in Ecuador against Chevron Corp has rejected calls by plaintiffs in that case to recuse himself for bias.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan rejected claims by two of the plaintiffs that he had prejudged the case, which concerns pollution of the Amazon rain forest and has spawned an 18-year worldwide legal battle.

The judge said there was no objective reason to believe he had been “anything less than entirely impartial,” according to his written ruling issued on Monday. He called his remarks and rulings in the litigation “perfectly banal.”

Kaplan on March 7 issued a preliminary injunction to stop the Ecuadorean plaintiffs from enforcing the judgment [ID:nN07237039], and set a Nov. 14 trial date to decide whether to make the injunction permanent. [ID:nN25225194]

An Ecuadorean court had on Feb. 14 imposed the $18 billion judgment as a result of environmental contamination from 1964 to 1992 by Texaco, which Chevron bought in 2001.

Julio Gomez, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, declined to comment.

“This was a meritless motion,” said Randy Mastro, a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in New York representing Chevron. “Now we can get on with the important litigation ahead to determine the enforceability or lack of enforceability of the Ecuadorean judgment.”

KAPLAN SAYS RULINGS WELL-GROUNDED

Plaintiffs in the Ecuador case, known as the Lago Agrio plaintiffs, said Texaco sickened residents, ruined their land, and damaged forestry and rivers through the discharge of some 18 billion gallons of toxic water into the rain forest.

Chevron had argued that Ecuador should handle further cleanup, saying Texaco was released in 1998. The litigation is the subject of a 2009 documentary, “Crude.”

Meanwhile, San Ramon, California-based Chevron filed a racketeering lawsuit in February against the two Lago Agrio plaintiffs and dozens of other individuals. Among these was a lead lawyer for the Lago Agrio plaintiffs, Steven Donziger.

In seeking Kaplan’s recusal, lawyers said Kaplan showed bias including through such statements as “I know the game here” in discussing one motion. They said Kaplan viewed the litigation as “a scheme fabricated by the Ecuadorean plaintiffs’ counsel to hit Chevron as big as they can.”

Kaplan said there was no basis for the contentions.

“Informed persons, knowing and understanding all of the myriad and complex facts of these extensive proceedings, and putting aside the rhetoric and other devices employed here by the Lago Agrio plaintiffs’ representatives, readily would see that the court’s rulings have been firmly grounded in the law and the evidence,” Kaplan wrote.

Chevron shares closed Monday up $1.21, or 1.2 percent, at $104.09 on the New York Stock Exchange.

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This blogger writes about the political climate in Ecuador and the Chevron Ecuador case:

And in March, the Committee To Protect Journalists also reports that President Correa himself filed a defamation complaint against the newspaper El Universo and its three executives and opinion editor. And the result of this complaint could be to land them in jail and have to pay “hefty fines” – specifically three years in jail and $80 million.

Looks like Chevron’s not the only organization Correa’s trying to shake down. He’s doing it to some of his own people.

And for…what?

Referring to Correa as what he’s acting like: a dictator.

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This blog writes about the New York Times story which discusses Stratus Consulting, a defendant in the Chevron’s RICO lawsuit:

One of the central players in the multi-billion-dollar litigation shakedown against Chevron for supposed environmental damage in Ecuador is Stratus Consulting. When New York attorney Steven Donziger and his team of trial lawyers wanted support for their outrageous environmental claims against the oil company, they turned to the Boulder, Colorado-based firm. But Stratus’ involvement with Donziger and the others behind the Ecuadorian lawsuit has been so close and so suspect that Chevron felt justified in including Stratus in its federal civil racketeering suit.

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Stratus Consulting, a named defendant in the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) suit Chevron filed in February 2011, is the subject of this New York Times article. The RICO claim addressed pervasive misconduct relating to the named defendants’ efforts to extort money from Chevron using the pendency of a lawsuit in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, directed and funded by American trial lawyers and their allies.  Chevron’s suit alleged that the named defendants, and certain non-party co-conspirators, have used the Ecuador lawsuit to threaten Chevron, mislead U.S. government officials, and harass and intimidate Chevron employees, all in order to extort a financial settlement from the company:

An environmental consulting firm named as a defendant in a racketeering suit filed by Chevron Corp. over a landmark pollution lawsuit in Ecuador is continuing to work on another blockbuster case: the Deepwater Horizon oil spill investigation.

Boulder, Colo.-based Stratus Consulting, a long-term contractor with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other federal agencies, is gathering and analyzing data concerning the Gulf of Mexico spill.

Stratus was named in February as a defendant in the federal racketeering suit filed by Chevron against Ecuadorean plaintiffs and their legal team who are seeking damages for environmental contamination relating to Texaco Petroleum Corp.’s operations there (Greenwire, Feb. 2).

Chevron acquired Texaco in 2001 and has been vigorously seeking to undermine the plaintiffs’ case, both in Ecuador, where the case is being heard, and in U.S. courts, where the plaintiffs were expected to try to recover any damages awarded to them.

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Media coverage of Chevron’s filing of an amended complaint as a result of new evidence of fraud that has come to light:

Chevron Corp. (CVX) on Thursday said it has filed an amended complaint in a New York federal court to block enforcement and recognition of a multibillion- dollar ruling against the energy giant, alleging further fraud and corruption in the case.

The amended complaint cites newly discovered evidence, according to Chevron, that the Ecuadorean indigenous plaintiffs’ lawyers and consultants, at a minimum, “provided clandestine assistance to the Ecuadorian court in drafting the judgment against Chevron.”

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