On Nov. 30, the Amazon Defense Front issued a press release stating that Chevron attorneys are violating a court order by failing to pay for the work of an Ecuadorian court-appointee. The assertion is false. Proper fact-checking would have shown that appointee Marcelo Munoz was paid by Chevron nearly a week earlier. This fact could have been easily ascertained by a review of Court records. In fact, Mr. Munoz said that the payment was made in a Nov. 25 letter to the court – five days before the Amazon Defense Front issued its release. Chevron also notified the court of the payment before the Amazon Defense Front’s release. Further, Judge Nicolas Zambrano confirmed the payment to Munoz as well as Chevron’s compliance with his Nov. 22 order.
The Nov. 30 release continues a pattern of misleading media communications from the Amazon Defense Front and its representatives. On Nov. 19, the Amazon Defense Front issued a release claiming that a Chevron lawyer was “sanctioned” by a U.S. federal court in Colorado for questioning in a deposition. After Chevron brought the Amazon Defense Front’s misleading press release to the Court’s attention, Magistrate Judge Michael E. Hegarty issued a clarifying order, stating that he had in fact denied the Amazon Defense Front’s motion “to the extent it sought sanctions.”
While aware of the truth, the Amazon Defense Front has yet to make a good faith effort to correct the record or retract its inaccurate press releases. Rather, the press releases aim to obscure overwhelming evidence of fraud on the part of Amazon Defense Front representatives. This goal is served neither by truth or accuracy.
For more on the fraud that has been committed by the plaintiffs’ representatives, please visit: http://www.chevron.com/ecuador/background/patternoffraud/.
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