Argentine Court Rejects Attempt to Enforce Fraudulent Ecuadorian Judgment Against Chevron
November 01 2017 - 4:52PM
Business Wire
An Argentine court has dismissed an attempt to enforce a
fraudulent $9.5 billion Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron
Corporation in the country.
In a 22-page decision, the National Civil Court No. 61 in Buenos
Aires found the plaintiffs failed to prove that the case had any
connection to Argentina that would justify recognition of the 2011
Ecuadorian judgment by the country’s courts.
The court found that Chevron Corporation is not domiciled and
has no assets in Argentina, which “seals the fate of the present
exequatur as it is inadmissible to recognize a foreign decision in
this jurisdiction where the defendant has no point of connection.”
The court relied on a previous decision from the Argentina Supreme
Court which found that Chevron’s indirect subsidiary in Argentina,
Chevron Argentina SRL, is a separate entity from Chevron
Corporation; not a party to the Ecuadorian lawsuit; and an embargo
against its assets in support of the Ecuadorian judgment is
“manifestly contrary to Argentinean public policy.” The opinion
awards costs to Chevron, as the prevailing party.
“Once again, attempts to profit from this fraudulent judgment
have been rejected,” said R. Hewitt Pate, Chevron’s vice president
and general counsel. “We are confident that any jurisdiction that
observes the rule of law and examines the facts will similarly find
the Ecuadorian judgment to be illegitimate and unenforceable.”
Dismissal of the recognition action in Argentina is the latest
setback for the lawyers behind the fraudulent lawsuit.
A U.S. federal court ruled in 2014 that the Ecuadorian judgment
was unenforceable in the United States. In a 500-page opinion, the
court found Steven Donziger, the American lawyer behind the
lawsuit, and his associates violated federal racketeering laws to
obtain the judgment, committing extortion, money laundering, wire
fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, witness tampering
and obstruction of justice. The court’s extensive findings were
unanimously upheld on appeal last year and, in June, the U.S.
Supreme Court denied Donziger’s petition seeking review of the
matter.
Attempts to enforce the fraudulent judgment in other
jurisdictions have been met with similar resistance.
In October 2017, Reporting Justice Luis Felipe Salomão, of
Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice, issued his vote rejecting the
attempted recognition of the Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron
Corporation in that country. Justice Salomão cited a lack of
jurisdiction and extensive evidence of fraud and corruption that
would make its recognition a violation of public policy.
In January 2017, a Canadian court rejected an attempt to enforce
the Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron’s subsidiary, Chevron
Canada Limited. The court found that Chevron Canada is a separate
entity from Chevron Corporation, not a party to the Ecuadorian
lawsuit and not a debtor to the judgment.
In 2015, the Supreme Court of Gibraltar issued a judgment
against Amazonia Recovery Ltd., a company set up by Donziger and
his associates to receive and distribute funds from the fraudulent
Ecuadorian judgment, awarding Chevron $28 million in damages and
issuing a permanent injunction against Amazonia that prevents that
company from supporting the case against Chevron in any way.
Chevron has never operated in Ecuador. Texaco Petroleum
(TexPet), which became a subsidiary of Chevron in 2001, was a
minority partner in an oil-production consortium in Ecuador along
with the state-owned oil company, Petroecuador, from 1964 to 1992.
After TexPet turned its remaining share of the oil operations over
to Petroecuador in 1992, pursuant to an agreement with Ecuador,
TexPet agreed to conduct a remediation of selected production sites
while Petroecuador remained responsible to perform any remaining
cleanup. The government of Ecuador oversaw and certified the
successful completion of TexPet’s remediation and fully released
TexPet from further environmental liability. Petroecuador, however,
failed to conduct the cleanup it promised and has continued to
operate and expand oil operations in the former concession over the
past 20 years.
Chevron Corporation is one of the world’s leading integrated
energy companies. Through its subsidiaries that conduct business
worldwide, the company is involved in virtually every facet of the
energy industry. Chevron explores for, produces and transports
crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes
transportation fuels and lubricants; manufactures and sells
petrochemicals and additives; generates power; and develops and
deploys technologies that enhance business value in every aspect of
the company’s operations. Chevron is based in San Ramon, Calif.
More information about Chevron is available at www.chevron.com.
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Chevron CorporationMorgan Crinklaw, 925-842-4204
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