Caso Chevron
More info on Donziger released; Lawyer gained multibillion-dollar verdict against Chevron through fraud, judge has ruled
More recently, the legal battle morphed into a different image: An alleged crooked attorney willing to do virtually anything to squeeze money out of a corporate oil giant.
Legal NewsLine 29/10/2018
Photo: Legal NewLine
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – Attorneys for Chevron on Oct. 24 asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to hold disbarred attorney Steven R. Donziger in contempt for his alleged continued efforts to personally profit off a pollution scam in the South American country of Ecuador.
The case spans over 20 years and began with Donziger being hailed as an environmental champion by environmentalists and the news media. More recently, the legal battle morphed into a different image: An alleged crooked attorney willing to do virtually anything to squeeze money out of a corporate oil giant.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, senior judge for the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York, ordered added information to be made public in the case.
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals suspended Donziger from practicing law in Washington D.C. last month following the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court suspension of his license in New York State last July.
As a result Donziger has no current courtroom in which to practice law.
He is accused of illegal and unethical activity, professional misconduct and racketeering including bribing judges and court-appointed experts, fabricating evidence, pressuring scientific experts to falsify reports, intimidating judges to make favorable rulings, ghostwriting court reports and even drafting and doctoring a final judgment.
All of it was designed allegedly to milk money from Chevron Corp. over its alleged pollution of the Ecuadorian Rain Forest in South America by oil drilling in the 1990’s conducted by Texaco.
In 2011, a judge in Ecuador ordered Chevron to pay Donziger and the plaintiffs he represented $18 billion. That amount was later reduced to $9.5 billion on appeal, but because Chevron had no assets in Ecuador, Donziger was forced to seek the judgment through courts in the U.S.
Chevron fought back, presenting evidence Donziger considered courts in Ecuador to be corrupt and easily manipulated, and that the alleged pollution was not as bad as had been claimed. The oil company paid $40 million for cleanup in Ecuador and signed an agreement with the government there absolving it of any further liability.
Donziger meanwhile claimed he was the victim of a gigantic corporate revenge campaign.
Read more here
Fuente OriginalNotas relacionadas
-
Más detalles sobre la moción de desacato contra Steven Donziger -
Analysis: Liberal Media Lionize Anti-Chevron Lawyer Steve Donziger -
Análisis: Medios de comunicación izquierdistas convierten en mártir al corrupto abogado anti-Chevron, Steven Donziger -
Chevron quiere a Donziger encarcelado en la lucha por una multa de $9.500 millones -
The Ecuador Saga Continues: Steven Donziger now owes Chevron more than $800,000 -
2016 fue un muy mal año para la guerra jurídica contra Chevron