Chevron response re disclosures to investors and Ecuador judgment

24 May 2011

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited Chevron to respond to the following articles:

  • “Chevron's Disclosures to Investors on Risks Associated with Ecuador are Questioned”, Robert Kropp, SocialFunds.com, 17 May 2011
  • Reputational Stumbles of the Week: Chevron, the Coal Industry, and Facebook”, Nell Minow, BNet, 16 May 2011
  • press release: “Report Finds Chevron Downplaying Shareholder Risk and Liability from $18 Billion Ecuador Judgment”, Rainforest Action Network, 11 May 2011
  • full report: “An Analysis of the Financial and Operational Risks to Chevron Corporation from Aguinda v. ChevronTexaco”, Simon Billenness & Sanford Lewis, 11 May 2011

Chevron responded with the following statement:

The referenced report is anything but independent. It was commissioned by the Rainforest Action Network and Amazon Watch, groups that have been funded for years by the plaintiffs’ lawyers to pressure Chevron into a settlement of the fraudulent Ecuador litigation through false campaigns and other improper conduct. The complicity of groups like Amazon Watch is undeniable. In the following outtake from the movie Crude, plaintiffs' lead U.S. lawyer Steve Donziger and Atossa Soltani (Founder and Director of Amazon Watch discuss hiring a private army to watch over the Ecuadorian court. Soltani becomes uncomfortable, and asks if "anybody can ... subpoena these videos?" Soltani then states to Donziger, "It's illegal to conspire to break the law." Source:
Over the last two years, overwhelming proof of fraud and misconduct on the part of the plaintiffs’ lawyers has emerged and five U.S. federal courts have found evidence that the Ecuador trial has been compromised by the plaintiffs’ lawyers’ fraud. In fact, Federal Magistrate Judge Dennis Howell said that "while this court is unfamiliar with the practices of the Ecuadorian judicial system, the court must believe that the concept of fraud is universal and that what has blatantly occurred in this matter would in fact be considered fraud by any court."

Due to their involvement in this scheme, RAN and Amazon Watch are listed as co-conspirators in a RICO lawsuit Chevron filed earlier this year seeking, among other things, to hold the plaintiffs’ lawyers accountable for their misconduct.
Chevron has made information about the litigation available on multiple websites, we have communicated directly with stockholders on the issue, and our view that the judgment in Ecuador is illegitimate and unenforceable has been widely covered by major media outlets.