Steve Donziger takes another giant hit in the fraudulent ‘Chevron Ecuador’ lawsuit, where Mr. Donziger has waged a decades long chase for billions of dollars on a foundation of false evidence and ecuadorian legal bullying of such a high level that his financiers have left him. Without money, Mr. Donziger can’t afford to pay high-dollar lawyers any more.
The San Francisco-based law firm of Keker & Van filed a motion to quit on Moy 3rd, and the direct reason given was lack of money.
The ‘Chevron Ecuador’case stems from the oil producing activities of a firm called “TexPet” – a joint venture mostly owned by Ecuador in partnership with Texaco, and which produced oil in Ecuador until 1992. Prior to that time, Texaco cleaned up its share of environmental impacts, and as per the request of Ecuador, left ownership of and operation of facilities solely to Petroecuador as part of Ecuador’s long-standing attempt to nationalize oil production.
But a group of American trial lawyers, led by Steve Donziger, saw a payday in a little known law, and filed suit against Chevron, which had purchased Texaco, and later, after the acquisition this issue. Steve has long said he expected to be wealthy from this case.
Donziger Case Falls On False Evidence
The wheels started to come off of Donziger’s lawsuit after the making of the movie Crude. Outtakes from the movie pointed to Steve’s assertions that facts were not important and that the Ecuadorian judges could be made to side with their case via coercion. Moreover, Donziger took up the task of routinely writing reports that were to come from Ecuador, for Ecuador – in this example below Steve wrote a document that was to come from Ecuador’s attorney general and to the United States Department Of Justice, asking for Chevron to settle:
It’s the revelations of actions like that which have destroyed Donziger’s case. Eventually, financial backers have quit, leading to the loss of the law firm Keker & Van Nest.
In the document below, Keker & Van Nest openly say that they’re quitting Donziger “on the grounds of non-payment of fees.” Keker’s representatives write that Donziger owes them $1.4 million, and needs “six to ten million” to continue the case as plaintiff – Donziger will represent himself.
In the motion, which you can read here, Keker also refers to the court as “hostile” to Donziger, but that’s because Judge Lewis Kaplan of The United States Southern District Court has long considered Donziger’s case against Chevron to be challenged by the obvious lack of real evidence, coupled with numerous discoveries of made-up evidence.