Tuesday, August 24th 2010
Reuters profiles the Chevron Ecuador case:
A run-down court building that also houses the local casino in this Amazon jungle town is the unlikely venue for the largest environmental damages lawsuit ever tried.
Tuesday, August 24th 2010
Reuters also features additional details of the Chevron Ecuador lawsuit:
U.S.-based Chevron Corp (CVX.N) faces a $27 billion environmental damages lawsuit in Ecuador, a case that has already dragged on for years and could last many more if it gets bogged down in appeals.
Friday, August 13th 2010
A new article on the Chevron Ecuador lawsuit:
The story of Chevron in Ecuador already bears a remarkable resemblance to that of Dole in Nicaragua. A U.S. company persuades a U.S. judge to toss out an alien tort claim on forum non conveniens grounds. U.S. plaintiffs lawyers then seek jackpot damages in a Latin American court (while being lionized in a controversial documentary). The corporation discredits the Latin American court by returning to the U.S. courts and alleging fraud.
In Dole’s case, a judge in California state court found that some of the plaintiffs lawyers had misled the court. In the Chevron case, it appeared that the actor most clearly discredited was the Ecuadorian judge caught on film discussing damages with an outside party. But last week, as the Litigation Daily previously reported, Chevron’s lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher filed a brief asserting that outtakes from the documentary Crude, turned over by the filmmaker in response to a Second Circuit discovery ruling, suggest that the plaintiffs lawyers themselves choreographed an “independent” expert’s report recommending up to $27 billion in damages.
Last year plaintiffs countered coverage of the judicial bias videotapes by attacking the motives and background of the American who secretly filmed the judge. Explaining the newly released footage will be more difficult. Based on what is known so far about the Crude outtakes, outrage seems appropriate. While the footage raises interesting questions of filmmaking ethics, what matters for the litigation is the apparent evidence of collusion between plaintiffs and court-appointed expert Richard Cabrera.
Thursday, August 12th 2010
The Washington Times editorializes on the lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador:
Ecuadorean Ambassador Luis Gallegos says in a letter on this page that “the government of Ecuador has no stake in the outcome of the private environmental litigation.” The facts show otherwise. On multiple occasions, the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, has weighed in against Chevron, making clear that his government has prejudged the case that claims the country suffered grave ecological damage from energy drilling performed by Texaco before the company became part of Chevron.
To cite one of many examples of fairness, Mr. Correa announced on Jan. 19, 2008, that the Amazon Defense Front, advocate of record for the plaintiffs in the case, “has all the support of the national government. … They know they can count on the support given by the national government.” In a weekly presidential broadcast on Aug. 9, 2008, Mr. Correa blasted Chevron and its defense, saying, “Washington Pesantez, the public prosecutor, has wisely opened investigations to sanction these people, because it is a lie. Nothing had been solved; no contamination had been remediated.”
Friday, August 6th 2010
More news on the Chevron Ecuador case and international arbitration:
The battle between oil giant Chevron and Ecuador’s government continues to rage. The parties were back in court on Thursday to discuss the latest item in their long-running dispute over environmental damages in the country’s Amazon region.
Friday, August 6th 2010
News on international arbitration and the Chevron Ecuador case:
Chevron Corp (CVX.N: Quote) urged a federal appeals court not to force it into Ecuador’s courts to defend a $27.4 billion lawsuit alleging its oilfields polluted the Amazon rainforest and sickened thousands of Ecuadorians.
Monday, August 2nd 2010
Reuters reports that a verdict is expected in eight to ten months:
A verdict in a multibillion-dollar trial against Chevron Corp (CVX.N) in Ecuador over rain forest pollution looks unlikely to be reached until 2011, according to the new judge on the case.
Monday, August 2nd 2010
Report on expected verdict in Ecuador:
A verdict in a multibillion-dollar trial against Chevron in Ecuador over rain forest pollution looks unlikely to be reached until next year, according to the new judge on the case.
Thursday, June 24th 2010
Another post on Amazon Watch and the Chevron Ecuador case:
While Amazon Watch and Steven Donziger yell and scream about American Chevron in an attempt to extort billions while claiming to represent Ecuador’s “indigenous people,” Ecuador President Rafael Correa is just one signed contract away from that country successfully nationalizing revenue from its oil industry.
Thursday, June 24th 2010
This new blog post on the San Francisco Chronicle’s website discusses Steven Donziger’s role in the trial in Ecuador and the fabricated “independent court expert” report:
In the never-ending Chevron Ecuador legal battle, Laywer Steven Donziger (the head of a decade-long battle to extort billions from Chevron for environmental damage caused by the Ecuador-owned Petroecuador and Ecuador President Rafael Correa’s policy of allowing oil production in the Amazon, while having kicked out American oil companies) and the Amazon Watch organization yesterday called for additional damages against Chevron in Ecuador, citing alleged sabotage of the court proceedings by Chevron.
Friday, June 11th 2010
Chevron Ecuador case is profiled:
After years of litigation over its liability for environmental damage in the Amazon rain forest, the Chevron Corporation is going all-in in its fight with Ecuador by seeking to persuade a panel of international arbitrators that the country’s courts cannot be trusted to dispense justice for foreign investors.
Last September, the US oil giant filed a claim for ‘denial of justice’ under a foreign investment protection treaty between the US and Ecuador. The claim is now a major part of the company’s damage-control strategy. Chevron has been readying itself for some time for a massive loss in the Ecuadorian courts, where plaintiffs are seeking to saddle the firm with a $30bn clean-up bill.
Chevron insists that Ecuador’s state oil company, PetroEcuador, bears liability for any clean-up, adding that the country’s politically tainted courts are colluding with PetroEcuador and the country’s government to lay the blame at Chevron’s door.
Tuesday, June 8th 2010
Article that takes issue with the accuracy of the recent New York Times piece on Chevron Ecuador case:
It’s funny how a person can be coaxed into wading into a very complicated issue without knowing all of the facts. That’s what happened when The New York Times’ Columnist Bob Herbert wrote a grossly inaccurate column about Chervron’s involvement in Ecuador.
Wednesday, June 2nd 2010
This article calls out the fraud and involvement of the Government of Ecuador in the Chevron case:
Desperate to call attention to their misguided and foundering lawsuit in Ecuador against Chevron, the Amazon Defense Coalition is trying to link its case to the BP catastrophe now unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico.
The activist group is overplaying its hand once again with a ploy that will damage the credibility of the global environmental movement.
Tuesday, June 1st 2010
But, as Watson noted and recent news stories have reported, the case against Chevron in Ecuador has turned into a legal circus and become overshadowed by a series of alleged legal and political frauds in Ecuador.
Watson pointed to evidence such as the Ecuadorian judge who had to remove himself from the case because he was caught up in a bribery scandal against Chevron, and, more recently, significant and damaging evidence that the entire case has been written by the plaintiffs against Chevron and then simply copied by the ‘independent court expert’ Richard Cabrera and submitted to the court.
There is mounting evidence that when this trial concludes, and Chevron is found guilty, that no court in the world will enforce the $27 billion judgment against Chevron because it will be tainted by fraud and illegal activities by the plaintiffs.
Tuesday, May 25th 2010
Chevron Corp. (CVX) has asked a provincial court in Ecuador to nullify a court-appointed expert from an environmental lawsuit and to throw out his work due to what the company alleges was misconduct.
Tuesday, May 25th 2010
Chevron Corp (CVX.N), which is in the throes of a multibillion-dollar pollution lawsuit in Ecuador, has asked courts there to disregard an environmental expert who has said the company should pay $27 billion in damages for polluting the Amazon rain forest.
Monday, May 24th 2010
Richard Cabrera, the Ecuador economist / geologist who’s name has appeared in this space as recently as February of 2010, is back in the news again. Chevron, who’s battling a lawsuit filed by Ecuador (but with the claim that it was issued by the indigenous people of Ecuador) claims to have found evidence that Cabrera was working with the real plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit. A suit that charges Chevron failed to do environmental cleanup in that country during its oil operations that ended 18 years ago. Those oil facilities were turned over to the Ecuador-run company called Petroecuador.
Monday, May 10th 2010
In yet another court room victory for American Oil Company Chevron, a New York Judge ordered a filmmaker to turn over his footage used in the production of the documentary film Crude: The Real Price of Oil.
Monday, May 10th 2010
A US federal court has ordered a documentary film-maker to hand over footage relating to pollution in the Amazon to the oil giant Chevron, the latest twist in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit.
Friday, May 7th 2010
A federal judge on Thursday granted Chevron Corp.’s request to subpoena the unused footage of a documentary filmmaker whose film “Crude” explored a long-running lawsuit against the company in Ecuador.
Tuesday, August 24th 2010
Reuters profiles the Chevron Ecuador case: A run-down court building that also houses the local casino in this Amazon jungle town is the unlikely venue for the largest environmental damages lawsuit ever tried. Read More »Tuesday, August 24th 2010
Reuters also features additional details of the Chevron Ecuador lawsuit: U.S.-based Chevron Corp (CVX.N) faces a $27 billion environmental damages lawsuit in Ecuador, a case that has already dragged on for years and could last many more if it gets bogged down in appeals. Read More »Friday, August 13th 2010
A new article on the Chevron Ecuador lawsuit: The story of Chevron in Ecuador already bears a remarkable resemblance to that of Dole in Nicaragua. A U.S. company persuades a U.S. judge to toss out an alien tort claim on forum non conveniens grounds. U.S. plaintiffs lawyers then seek jackpot damages in a Latin American court (while being lionized in a controversial documentary). The corporation discredits the Latin American court by returning to the U.S. courts and alleging fraud. In Dole's case, a judge in California state court found that some of the plaintiffs lawyers had misled the court. In the Chevron case, it appeared that the actor most clearly discredited was the Ecuadorian judge caught on film discussing damages with an outside party. But last week, as the Litigation Daily previously reported, Chevron's lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher filed a brief asserting that outtakes from the documentary Crude, turned over by the filmmaker in response to a Second Circuit discovery ruling, suggest that the plaintiffs lawyers themselves choreographed an "independent" expert's report recommending up to $27 billion in damages. Last year plaintiffs countered coverage of the judicial bias videotapes by attacking the motives and background of the American who secretly filmed the judge. Explaining the newly released footage will be more difficult. Based on what is known so far about the Crude outtakes, outrage seems appropriate. While the footage raises interesting questions of filmmaking ethics, what matters for the litigation is the apparent evidence of collusion between plaintiffs and court-appointed expert Richard Cabrera. Read More »Wednesday, September 1st 2010
Discussion of the restrictions that Ecuador President Rafael Correa is placing on the media: Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua have passed new media laws—all of them aimed at clipping the wings of privately owned news sources—and the call for “social control of media” is viral among lefty groups. (It was unanimously endorsed, for instance, by participants at an August confab in Argentina of regional leftist parties—which now govern 11 Latin American countries—called the São Paulo Forum.) “The threat to freedom is all around,” says Amaury de Souza, a Brazilian political scientist. “And it’s growing.” Read More »Wednesday, September 1st 2010
This article discusses Ecuador's oil exports and imports of refined crude: Ecuador is one of Latin America’s largest oil exporters, with net oil exports estimated at 305,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2009. Read More »Wednesday, September 1st 2010
Ecuador signs second loan in two months with China: Ecuador and China signed on Tuesday a $1 billion loan deal as the Asian giant is pushing ahead with the policy of securing energy resources in Latin America and Africa. The fresh loan deal, which Ecuador's government signed in Beijing with the China Development Bank, comes just two months after Ecuador and the Export-Import Bank of China signed a $1.7 billion deal for financing a huge hydroelectric project in Ecuador. Read More »