Steven Donziger vs Chevron and the joke that the US Justice system is.

[Mihalik]

Right. So, just what the fuck is a Steven Donziger?

Donziger is a human rights attorney who has been representing Ecuadorian natives in an ongoing court battle against Chevron (and Texaco before that).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lago_Agrio_oil_field

Back in 1993 Donziger launched a class action lawsuit against Texaco (before it was bought by Chevron in 2001)on behalf of 30000 people living around a certain oil field that Texaco has been exploiting for decades. In the process Texaco polluted the area with chemical run off and crude oil, completely poisoning the environment and making tens of thousands of people sick in the process.

The source of the contaminants and the degree of contamination is not really in dispute.

The lawsuit was initially launched in New York, but as the case at the time wasn't going Chevron's way, it got moved to Ecuador. Something Chevron at the time was in favor of (to avoid a Jury trial in the US. This will become a running theme).

Tho when Chevron ended up losing the suit in Ecuador and got hit with a 9.5 billion dollar fine which would have covered the environmental clean up of the area and the medical bills of the locals, it divested all its assets from Ecuador and simply refused to pay (continues to do so) and accused Donziger of using bribery to obtain the verdict.

Reminder, the case was moved to Ecuador at Chevron's request.

But Chevron took it further. It sued Donziger in New York and found itself a corporate attorney turned judge who turned the civil suit into a RICO case (a special law designed to prosecute the mafia), but when US federal prosecutors refused to prosecute Donziger, the Judge proceeded to appoint a private attorney from a private law firm as a prosecutor (something I never realized could be done).

There were another series of legal maneuvers on behalf of Chevron which led to Donziger's disbarment (going against the recommendation of the person assigned by the bar to investigate Donziger) and to Donziger's placement under house arrest. He has been under house arrest for over 2 years.

Now he has been sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for refusing to turn over to the court and by extent to Chevron all his private communications, most of which include materials related to his legal defense and materials tied to other lawsuits that will be brought against Chevron in countries like Canada with the purpose of going after Chevron's assets to enforce the Ecuadorian sentence.

UN panels, various jurists etc essentially consider Donziger a political prisoner. And Chevron's campaign against him is essentially a personal vendetta. Seemingly Chevron has so far spent about 2 billion dollars on legal fees in its efforts to persecute Donziger.

Note for the sake of full impartiality.

There are some doubts about the impartiality of the Ecuadorian courts in their sentencing of Chevron.

But the truth is... Texaco fucked up that lake and poisoned those people. Chevron bought Texaco, with its legal liabilities included. Chevron has so far paid zero dollars to clean up its mess, which is about 2 billion dollars more than it spent on legal fees.

Furthermore Donziger has been prosecuted in the US by highly and I mean highly dubious means, with the Judges and Chevron using various legal tricks to prevent Donziger from getting a jury trial or from being able to fully practice as an attorney, all this without a single government prosecutor ever accusing Donziger of anything.

https://www.thenation.com/article/en...on-sentencing/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ntempt-chevron

https://earthrights.org/blog/what-yo...iger-is-wrong/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michael...is-incomplete/

I included some neutral, some pro-Donziger and some explicitly anti-Donziger sources.

But honestly, the more I read about this case, the more it seems to be an insane situation where the US judiciary is holding a man as a political prisoner at the behest of a corporation.

[Levelfive]

Right. So, just what the fuck is a Steven Donziger?

Donziger is a human rights attorney who has been representing Ecuadorian natives in an ongoing court battle against Chevron (and Texaco before that).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lago_Agrio_oil_field

Back in 1993 Donziger launched a class action lawsuit against Texaco (before it was bought by Chevron in 2001)on behalf of 30000 people living around a certain oil field that Texaco has been exploiting for decades. In the process Texaco polluted the area with chemical run off and crude oil, completely poisoning the environment and making tens of thousands of people sick in the process.

The source of the contaminants and the degree of contamination is not really in dispute.

The lawsuit was initially launched in New York, but as the case at the time wasn't going Chevron's way, it got moved to Ecuador. Something Chevron at the time was in favor of (to avoid a Jury trial in the US. This will become a running theme).

Tho when Chevron ended up losing the suit in Ecuador and got hit with a 9.5 billion dollar fine which would have covered the environmental clean up of the area and the medical bills of the locals, it divested all its assets from Ecuador and simply refused to pay (continues to do so) and accused Donziger of using bribery to obtain the verdict.

Reminder, the case was moved to Ecuador at Chevron's request.

But Chevron took it further. It sued Donziger in New York and found itself a corporate attorney turned judge who turned the civil suit into a RICO case (a special law designed to prosecute the mafia), but when US federal prosecutors refused to prosecute Donziger, the Judge proceeded to appoint a private attorney from a private law firm as a prosecutor (something I never realized could be done).

There were another series of legal maneuvers on behalf of Chevron which led to Donziger's disbarment (going against the recommendation of the person assigned by the bar to investigate Donziger) and to Donziger's placement under house arrest. He has been under house arrest for over 2 years.

Now he has been sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for refusing to turn over to the court and by extent to Chevron all his private communications, most of which include materials related to his legal defense and materials tied to other lawsuits that will be brought against Chevron in countries like Canada with the purpose of going after Chevron's assets to enforce the Ecuadorian sentence.

UN panels, various jurists etc essentially consider Donziger a political prisoner. And Chevron's campaign against him is essentially a personal vendetta. Seemingly Chevron has so far spent about 2 billion dollars on legal fees in its efforts to persecute Donziger.

Note for the sake of full impartiality.

There are some doubts about the impartiality of the Ecuadorian courts in their sentencing of Chevron.

But the truth is... Texaco fucked up that lake and poisoned those people. Chevron bought Texaco, with its legal liabilities included. Chevron has so far paid zero dollars to clean up its mess, which is about 2 billion dollars more than it spent on legal fees.

Furthermore Donziger has been prosecuted in the US by highly and I mean highly dubious means, with the Judges and Chevron using various legal tricks to prevent Donziger from getting a jury trial or from being able to fully practice as an attorney, all this without a single government prosecutor ever accusing Donziger of anything.

https://www.thenation.com/article/en...on-sentencing/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ntempt-chevron

https://earthrights.org/blog/what-yo...iger-is-wrong/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michael...is-incomplete/

I included some neutral, some pro-Donziger and some explicitly anti-Donziger sources.

But honestly, the more I read about this case, the more it seems to be an insane situation where the US judiciary is holding a man as a political prisoner at the behest of a corporation.

Holy shit. Gotta make sure no one else has the audacity to hold corporations accountable. Of course it immediately made me think of the WSJ's expose of a couple hundred (I don't remember the exact number, 173?) judges not recusing themselves from cases in which they had a material interest.

[Sormine]

The extent to which Chevron has ties to the prosecution and presiding Judges in this case is nauseating. Not to mention Preska's treatment of Donzinger and her attitude towards this case.

[JohnBrown1917]

Judges and the folk who bribed deserve a nice cozy jail cell.

[Fugus]

truly screwed up.

[uuuhname]

this right here is why the lower courts and the Supreme court needs to be looked at as rotten to the core and have no legitimacy. because they are yet another arm of the mega rich to avoid responsibility or even vague accountability for ruining the planet.

[Mihalik]

The extent to which Chevron has ties to the prosecution and presiding Judges in this case is nauseating. Not to mention Preska's treatment of Donzinger and her attitude towards this case.

That's the bit I find the most shocking. The ties between the judges, Chevron and the private prosecution are so painfully and glaringly obvious that it simply shocking.

The man is literally being prosecuted by Chevron itself in effect. Ignoring the fact that Chevron literally just shit on Ecuador and the tens of thousands of people it poisoned...now it has the power to prosecute people? Like what the actual fuckity fuck.



Here's something I found for a bit of context on what exactly happened in Ecuador.

It makes a lot of sense that Chevron is willing to do absolutely anything to prevent this from ever going before a jury, because the second it does... They will end up paying out of the ass.

[JohnBrown1917]

She said, “It seems that only the proverbial two-by-four between the eyes will instill in him any respect for the law.”

in response, Preska read out a prepared 50-minute statement for her harsh sentence. “Mr. Donziger spent the last seven plus years thumbing his nose at the US judicial system,” she said. “It’s now time to pay the piper.”

From the nation article.

The system is working.

[Mihalik]

The system is working.

The system is working. It's working to protect Chevron and ilk.

[JohnBrown1917]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/27/b...r-chevron.html

He is in Prison now.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seward_%26_Kissel

The kind of scummy lawyers we really don't need in this world. Fucking scum

[Shadowferal]

Businesses...I wonder if they should have lawyers.

[Mihalik]

The shocking part is that the abuses are brazen and self evident, but there seems to be no mechanism to check the judicial abuse here.

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The kind of scummy lawyers we really don't need in this world. Fucking scum

Lawyers be lawyers. I don't care. What bothers me are the judges themselves. These lifetime corporate lackeys who got their benches because of aggressive corporate support and lobbying and are now doing their patrons dirty work.