Sex Scandal, Blackmail Thicken Plot of Chevron Pollution Case

A matter that began with a pollution lawsuit against Chevron for destruction of  Ecuadorian rain forest going back to the 1960s may turn on a Southern District of New York racketeering case that targets the main plaintiff lawyer, Steven Donzinger. That case is part of Chevron’s attempt to avoid a $9.5 billion judgement rendered in Ecuadorean courts. Chevron maintains that Texaco, which it subsequently acquired, did some remediation on the polluted site and that Texaco’s former partner is responsible for the rest. The plaintiff case by most accounts has deteriorated badly, with Chevron alleging that while the case was winding through the Ecuadoran court system, the plaintiff lawyers engaged in a variety of illegal practices, primarily witness tampering and bribery, but including  – as recounted in this post by a Bloomberg reporter who is writing a book about the case – blackmail of a judge by threatening him with a sexual harassment suit.

Aiding their case considerably, Chevron lawyers have gained access to Donzinger’s voluminous private real-time notes as part of the racketeering case. A recent New York Times article characterizes Donzinger as defiant. He calls Chevron’s case against him part of “the most well-funded corporate retaliation campaign in the history of human rights litigation,” and denied the charges vehemently when he took the stand Nov. 19.