Chevron Alleges New Evidence of Fraud In Recent Judgment by Ecuadorian Court

摘要

Documents produced in discovery revealed new evidence of fraud in the Lago Agrio litigation, Chevron Corp. alleged in an amended complaint filed April 20 in its civil lawsuit against the Ecuadorian plaintiffs and Steven R. Donziger, one of their attorneys (Chevron Corp. v. Donziger, S.D.N.Y., No. l:ll-cv-00691, amended complaint filed, 4/20/11). Chevron filed the lawsuit Feb. 1 under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), calling the Ecuadorian action a "sham." An Ecuadorian court awarded $18 billion to the plaintiffs Feb. 14 for Amazon rain forest pollution by Chevron's corporate predecessor, but the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York preliminarily enjoined enforcement of the judgment March 7 and denied defendants a stay of the injunction April 18 (34 INER 290, 3/16/11).