Chevron’s Unethical Lobbying of Ecuador Government Revealed in Wikileaks Cables

Just days after Second Circuit Court of Appeals dissolved (link to yesterdays post) the injunction prohibiting the enforcement of multibillion judgment against Chevron; Wikileaks cables written by U.S officials exposed another attempt by the oil giant to illegally end the pollution lawsuit.

Wikileaks documents show that Chevron tried to manipulate Ecuadorian government to interfere with the lawsuit, knowing that such intervention is forbidden by the Ecuadorian Constitution and would be illegal.

Read Amazon Defense Coalition Press Release or Chevron Pit

Judge Kaplan’s Absurd Decisions

It seems like Judge Kaplan is confused over what his role in the Chevron trial is. Looking at his behavior, comments and rulings, you’d think he is representing Chevron. He is supposed to be impartial and make a fair decision whether the multibillion-dollar judgment against Chevron is enforceable or not. And most importantly, he is supposed to listen to everyone’s arguments. Instead, he decided to exclude the Ecuadorians’ lead lawyer Steven Donziger from the trial. Even though Donziger has been a key person in the historic pollution case for over 18 years, he is not allowed to be in the courtroom as crucial decisions are being made about his case.

Read more here and here

Judge Kaplan's Unacceptable Behavior

I wrote about Judge Lewis Kaplan a while ago. Chevron filed a lawsuit against Ecuadorians in an effort to block the enforcement of the $18 billion judgement that was awarded to them and Judge Kaplan is presiding over it. He is biased. He keeps making inappropriate comments towards the Ecuadorians referring to them as “so-called Lago Agrio plaintiffs” and "a number of indigenous peoples said to reside in the Amazon rainforest." and according to him the Ecuadorian lawsuit-one of the biggest environmental lawsuits ever, is just a "game" brought about by the "imagination of American lawyers" trying to solve the "balance of payments" problem of the United States. This is absolutely unacceptable!

Chevron back to its old tricks.

In 2009, a few days before 60 Minutes program about Chevron's contamination in Ecuador was scheduled to air, Chevron released a video featuring CNN's Gene Randall. The video was purposely designed to fool the viewers into thinking that it was a real news broadcast. Last year Chevron tried to pay an American freelance journalist to spy on the Ecuadorian plaintiffs. Now, Alex Thorne- pro-Chevron blogger is pretending to be working on an article and reaching out to Amazon Watch donors asking them to reconsider their support for Amazon Watch. As Chevron Pit points out, this is Chevron's another attempt to use fake journalism to undermine the pollution lawsuit.

Chevron Accuses Everyone But Is Blind to Its Own Wrongdoings

Chevron has been acting as if it is above the law from the very beginning of the pollution lawsuit in Ecuador. The oil giant has tried every possible move to avoid paying for the cleanup of its own toxic mess in the Ecuadorian rain forest. Some of Chevron's doings have been unjust and very often illegal. A perfect example would be Diego Borja admitting Chevron tried to manipulate the evidence.

Chevron seems to think blatant lies and manipulation are acceptable as long as it works in Chevron's favor, but the oil giant is very quick to accuse others of wrongdoing even when there's no reason to. Chevron accused Ecuadorian plaintiffs of illegally communicating with court appointed experts. But, there are two facts that Chevron chose to completely ignore. One- such meetings are completely acceptable. Two- Chevron's officials have met with with technical experts as well and Chevron did not find it inappropriate then. What makes Chevron look even more foolish is that after requesting the court to appoint an expert to conduct tests at some of the oil sites in Ecuador, Chevron refused to pay the expert after he found contamination at those sites.

Chevron's Shareholders Getting Worried

A few days before Chevron's annual shareholder meeting, a new report has been released on Chevron's liability risks. The authors, Simon Billenness and Sanford Lewis- corporate governance experts, point out that the 18 billion dollar liability for the contamination of the Ecuadorian rainforest exposed company's lack of proper risk management and put Chevron at risk of irreparable harm to its value and reputation.Chevron's board of directors has been avoiding shareholders' questions about the financial risks related to the pollution lawsuit in Ecuador and has given misleading statements to the investors. This is very typical of Chevron- refusing to answer to anyone's questions and going by its own rules.

Read more about the report here.

Criminals On Chevron's Payroll

Have you ever wondered what Chevron is spending its money on, other than huge bonuses and salaries for its top executives? Well, today's post on Chevron Pit answers this question. Apparently some of Chevron's profits goes to the self-proclaimed “dirty tricks” operative Diego Borja and his partner, a drug felon named Wayne Hansen. They don't even need to do any actual work for Chevron, just a few illegal operations like trying to set up the Ecuadorian judge who was presiding over the pollution lawsuit. If you want to find out what being Chevron's dirty operative will get you, go here.