Chevron Ecuador: Steve Donziger Gained $25 Million From Gaming, Phone Sex Entrepreneur

Chevron Ecuador Lawsuit plaintiff’s lawyer Steven Donziger might claim to be fighting for the indigenous poor of Ecuador, but he’s gotten rich from it in the process. Moreover, his money gain was from a friend who profited from work in online gaming and in phone sex.

Thanks to investments from law school friend Russell DeLeon, who was an employee in his wife’s company PartyGaming, Donziger gained $25 million. The trouble is, DeLeon’s wife, Ruth Parasol, was also involved in the adult phone sex industry, and used money from the sale of her phone sex business to start PartyGaming. Russell DeLeon served as a consultant to that company.

According to court emails and records revealed during the Chevron RICO trail last fall, Russell DeLeon became involved as an investor in Donziger’s fraudulent lawsuit against Chevron, and to the tune of the $25 million in what can be called ‘vice money.’

PartyGaming’s revenue production fell after the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act in October 2006. (And in the interest of full disclosure, the development of that law had a profound impact on the direction of my first company Sports Business Simulations. My business partner and I did not want to be involved in the gambling business, which is what games like Party Poker were engaging in at the time. SBS was launched in 2003.)

With friends who’ve gained wealth in such seedy ways, and have helped it should come as no surprise that Donziger’s so-called case against Chevron in itself has been seedy and fraudulent.

Stay tuned.