“The wrongful actions of Donziger and his Ecuadorian legal team would be offensive to the laws of any nation that aspires to the rule of law.” – U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Kaplan, Southern District of New York.
Below is Chevron’s full statement on this matter, which was sent to MSNBC after their interview with Steven Donziger:
The Last Word’s segment on Tuesday featuring Steven Donziger and the lawsuit he filed against Chevron in Ecuador misstated and omitted many crucial facts.
Mr. Donziger is not a “human rights lawyer.” He is an adjudicated racketeer who was convicted of criminal contempt and disbarred from practicing law for his illegal and unethical behavior. In fact, his indigenous Ecuadorian clients fired him years ago for refusing to account for tens of millions of dollars he raised in their name.
The federal District Court in Manhattan ruled that Mr. Donziger “obtained [the Ecuadorian judgment] by corrupt means” and engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity. The ruling was unanimously affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals, which declared that “the record … reveals a parade of corrupt actions by [Mr. Donziger and his] team, including coercion, fraud, and bribery.”
And an international tribunal in The Hague found that, “short of a signed confession,” the evidence was “the most thorough … proof of fraud ever put before an arbitral tribunal.”
As a result, New York’s courts disbarred Mr. Donziger for his “egregious professional misconduct.”
Mr. Donziger’s attacks on the federal judiciary for holding him accountable are outrageous and offensive.
