An Ecuadorean appeals court has upheld a ruling that Chevron should pay damages of over $18 billion over its role in Amazon oil pollution.
The ruling came from a panel of three judges presiding over appellate proceedings in the Provincial Court of Justice of SucumbÃos in Lago Agrio, Ecuador in an environmental lawsuit against Texaco Petroleum Company, upholding a lower court’s ruling.
In a statement released on January 3, Chevron said:
“Today’s decision is another glaring example of the politicization and corruption of Ecuador’s judiciary that has plagued this fraudulent case from the start. The Lago Agrio judgment was procured through a corrupt and fraudulent scheme, much of which was captured on film and memorialized in the plaintiffs’ representatives’ own emails and correspondence. Their misconduct includes fabricating expert reports, manufacturing evidence, bribing and colluding with court officials, waging a campaign of intimidation against judges, and even ghostwriting parts of the verdict itself.
“Evidence of these crimes has been provided to Ecuador’s courts and prosecutors, but authorities there have taken no corrective actions. In the United States, however, no less than eight federal judges have found that the trial in Ecuador has been marred by the fraud and misconduct of the plaintiffs’ representatives. And an international Tribunal presiding in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague has ordered Ecuador to take all measures at its disposal to suspend enforcement of the Lago Agrio judgment within and without Ecuador.
“Chevron does not believe that the Ecuador ruling is enforceable in any court that observes the rule of law. The company will continue to seek to hold accountable the perpetrators of this fraud.”
Â
