There are reports that Steve Donziger, the now famous plaintiffs lawyer in the Chevron Ecuador case - yeah, the same one who took a back seat to new lawyers led by the Patton Boggs firm - is striking back at U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan, saying that Kaplan was biased against Chevron and that is why the New York Judge ruled to block collection of any damage award from an Ecuador court trial that many knew was fixed in Ecuador's favor to start with. In the process Steve is essentially proving what Kaplan has charged Donziger with doing in Ecuador: namely working to bully the courts.
Donziger's trying to collect his money. That's all.
The bottom line is that Donziger won a sham trial in Ecuador - a country known for its unequal distribution of income, corrupt government, and curtailment of human rights - and did so in a way that Kaplan said, and did so with evidence, was fraudulent, and now wants to collect his share of the billions he said he expected to make from this case years ago.
Here's a reminder:
What a laugh.
What gets me, and has spurred me to blog about this since late 2007 or so, is that Ecuador gets off scott free from having to change its culture in any real way. President Correa's still corrupt, still trying to make people think he's an environmentalist when he's not. The ruling political party that controls the courts is still in power and waiting for its handout from the Chevron ruling (good luck). Anyone who blogs a view that the President's acting like a thug gets jailed. And Petroecuador, Ecuador's state-owned oil producer is still getting away with major oil spills (some 15 in all) that it then blames on Chevron, even though the American Oil Company isn't even there and hasn't been in Ecuador since 1992. Oh, and there are people, some in the media, who actually believe that garbage!
If you hear someone defend Ecuador, ask them what they know about the country's terribly ran oil production system, corrupt courts, and abysmal human rights record. Then watch them talk; they'd have nothing to say.
Crazy.
Donziger's trying to collect his money. That's all.
The bottom line is that Donziger won a sham trial in Ecuador - a country known for its unequal distribution of income, corrupt government, and curtailment of human rights - and did so in a way that Kaplan said, and did so with evidence, was fraudulent, and now wants to collect his share of the billions he said he expected to make from this case years ago.
Here's a reminder:
What a laugh.
What gets me, and has spurred me to blog about this since late 2007 or so, is that Ecuador gets off scott free from having to change its culture in any real way. President Correa's still corrupt, still trying to make people think he's an environmentalist when he's not. The ruling political party that controls the courts is still in power and waiting for its handout from the Chevron ruling (good luck). Anyone who blogs a view that the President's acting like a thug gets jailed. And Petroecuador, Ecuador's state-owned oil producer is still getting away with major oil spills (some 15 in all) that it then blames on Chevron, even though the American Oil Company isn't even there and hasn't been in Ecuador since 1992. Oh, and there are people, some in the media, who actually believe that garbage!
If you hear someone defend Ecuador, ask them what they know about the country's terribly ran oil production system, corrupt courts, and abysmal human rights record. Then watch them talk; they'd have nothing to say.
Crazy.