HAVE YOU GOT A PIECE OF THIS LAWSUIT? THE BITTER ENVIRONMENTAL SUIT AGAINST CHEVRON IN ECUADOR OPENS A WINDOW ON A TROUBLING NEW BUSINESS: SPECULATING IN COURT CASES

摘要

MANY READERS will have already heard about the bitterly contested $18.2 billion environmental judgment handed down against Chevron in February by a judge in Sucumbios province in northeastern Ecuador, an Amazon jungle region where Colombian narcoterrorists go for R&R. The judgment was entered in the rough-and-tumble oil outpost known as Lago Agrio on behalf of Ecuadorians who live in the area where Texaco, acquired by Chevron in 2001, drilled for oil from 1964 to 1990. What few readers may yet appreciate is that, for much of the past six months, this controversial case has been financed by a great many investors who don't even realize they've been performing that service for the plaintiffs - maybe even you. We'll explain how in a moment.