There’s an old newspaper adage that goes – never pick a fight with a man who buys ink by the barrel. Well an Ecuadorean judge has now put a slight spin on that saying – never pick a fight with a company that sells oil by the million barrels.
The judge in question, Juan Evangelista Nunez, was, until very recently, presiding over a US$27 billion environmental lawsuit involving the US supermajor Chevron.
In a series of videos Chevron released on YouTube, Nunez is secretly filmed telling a businessman that he has already decided that he will rule against the company and order it to clean up an area of Amazonian rainforest that suffered alleged environmental damage in Ecuador in the early 1990s. The damage was alleged to have been caused by Texaco that was subsequently bought by Chevron. The lawsuit has been brought by the Ecuadorian indigenous community who live in the area.
The videos also show another man trying to elicit $3 million in bribes that he said would be divided between the plaintiffs, the judge and the “the presidency”.
The story has caused a storm in the OPEC member state and has resulted in Nunez stepping down from the case but not before he issued a furious denial stating that he had been set-up and his words taken out of context.
Chevron has hit back stating that the videos are proof that the trial is fixed and that they won’t honour any judgments made against them.
See the video and read the transcripts here.
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