María Aguínda, the lead plaintiff in the initial 1993 case brought against Texaco in New York, and later in the 2003 Lago Agrio litigation against Chevron, admitted on video that she didn’t knowingly sign onto the lawsuit. Rather, she signed a document in return for promises of “free medicine.” Months later “her” attorneys informed her that she was the lead plaintiff in the case. In the Lago Agrio lawsuit, the lawyers cut even more corners: they simply forged the names of at least 20 of the 48 “plaintiffs.”
