Chevron’s racketeering litigation against Steven Donziger, a NY plaintiff’s attorney, regarding an uncertain $9.5 billion verdict took aim at the wrong party, based on briefs looking to reverse a federal judge’s decision in which the verdict had been tainted by Donziger’s wrongdoings.
The issue is on a 2011 Ecuadorean court decision that found Chevron was liable for pollution resulting from oil exploration in the Amazon. The litigation produced a heated, multi-million dollar legal fight between the oil giant, which denied any liability; and the plaintiffs, who wanted to have the verdict done in Canada, Argentina, and Brazil.
The initial findings of the verdict were brought up by a panel, where after analyzing the whole record in trial, issued an alternative judgment in 2012 confirming the oil giant’s liability. The judgment was later preserved by the highest Ecuadorean court.
Chevron kept their attention to Donziger’s acts, saying that the attorney and his colleagues took part in extortion, racketeering, money laundering, wire fraud, and host of other violations.
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