A New York federal judge has ordered attorney Steven Donziger to surrender his passport to pressure him to comply with court orders in a legal battle with Chevron to hand over his electronic devices.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Tuesday said “additional coercive remedies” were necessary because Donziger, who helped secure a $9.5 billion oil pollution judgment against Chevron Corp. that Judge Kaplan later deemed fraudulent, had not purged himself of a pair of contempt orders from May.
At a Monday hearing on the issue, Donziger first unsuccessfully sought an adjournment and then refused to testify. Donziger has not paid any of the coercive fines stemming from two recent contempt findings, which totaled $952,000 as of Sunday, according to the order.
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