Part two of a three-part series A lawsuit in Ecuador claiming $113 billion in damages against the U.S. oil company Chevron has been built on the drafting of fraudulent scientific reports and manipulation of the Latin American country’s corruptible judicial system. Astonishingly, the U.S. trial lawyer and his team suing Chevron are now on record acknowledging these schemes. Chevron’s aggressive legal defense has introduced hundreds of thousands of pages of damning documents into court proceedings around the United States, as well of outtakes from a documentary on the suit, “Crude,” in which the principles speak openly about their strategies.
“You know, this is Ecuador,” Steven Donziger, the New York City attorney who has led the legal campaign against Chevron, explains in one “Crude” outtake. “You can say whatever you want and at the end of the day, there’s a thousand people around the courthouse, you’re going to get what you want. Sorry, but it’s true.”
