Chevron Lawyer Faces Sanctions for Misleading Court Over “Dirty Tricks” Operation in Ecuador

[Judi Lynn]

April 27, 2010 01:22 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Amazon Defense Coalition: Chevron Lawyer Faces Sanctions for Misleading Court Over “Dirty Tricks” Operation in Ecuador
Adolfo Callejas Charged With Hiding Information to Delay Trial

QUITO, Ecuador--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Chevron’s lead lawyer in Ecuador faces sanctions for misleading the court about a “dirty tricks” operation that the oil giant used to try to delay an environmental trial where it faces a multi-billion dollar liability, representatives of the plaintiffs announced today.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs filed a motion with the Ecuador court asserting that Chevron lawyer Adolfo Callejas misled the judge when he failed to disclose that secretly taped videos of the trial judge were made by a longtime Chevron contractor, Diego Borja, who worked for the company’s legal team in the trial. Callejas has worked as a lawyer with Chevron and its predecessor company in Ecuador, Texaco, for more than three decades.

The plaintiffs have called the creation of the videos – released on YouTube in August of last year -- a “dirty tricks” operation by Chevron intended to derail the trial, where the scientific evidence points to the oil giant’s culpability for causing a wide-ranging environmental catastrophe in Ecuador’s rainforest.

Chevron lawyer Callejas had told the Ecuador court that Borja was an independent third party who made the tapes and then turned them over to Chevron because of a sense of civic duty. Borja later admitted he and his wife were paid substantial sums of money by Chevron for years to work on the environmental trial, and later were moved by Chevron to the U.S. where Borja continues to receive a salary from the oil giant.

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