A former Ecuadorean judge who presided over a pollution case against Chevron Corp. (CVX:US) testified that he and a colleague who issued a $19 billion judgment against the company in the environmental lawsuit were bribed.
The judge, Alberto Guerra, took the stand today in Manhattan federal court during the trial of a racketeering suit in which Chevron alleged that the verdict in Ecuador was procured through fraud.
Guerra has said in a declaration filed with the court that he was paid thousands of dollars by lawyers for the plaintiffs to steer the case in their favor. Another former Ecuadorean judge who issued the $19 billion ruling, Nicolas Zambrano, was promised $500,000 from the proceeds, Guerra said in the November filing. Guerra said he also routinely ghost wrote judgments for Zambrano and was paid for those services.
