Chevron Witness Describes 'Shocking' Levels of Corruption in $19 Billion Pollution Case

A protester from Ecuador demonstrating at Chevron's trial in New York on Oct. 15Photograph by Carlo Allegri/Corbis

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By Paul M. Barrett

November 1, 2013 at 4:16 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Chevron just had a very big day in its lawsuit seeking to undermine a $19 billion pollution verdict in Ecuador. A prominent New York commercial litigator said on the stand that he bowed out of the Ecuadorian pollution case against Chevron in 2010 when he discovered “shocking” levels of corruption on the plaintiffs’ side.

Jeffrey Shinder said that Steven Donziger, the lead plaintiffs’ lawyer fighting Chevron in Ecuador, had lied to him to cover up the ghostwriting of a critical scientific report supposedly written by a court-appointed independent expert in Ecuador. Shinder said that he withdrew from the suit against Chevron on ethical grounds after he learned that, in fact, Donziger had overseen the ghostwriting of the report by American consultants working for Donziger.