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| What does Ecuador President Rafael Correa think? |
In a blockbuster development that could effectively crash Ecuador's entire case against Chevron (or as the plaintiffs claim, the Ecuadorian indigenous groups even though President Rafael Correa is reported to pay close attention to the case) - the charge that Chevron failed to clean up alleged environmental damage made during oil production operations during Chevron / Texaco operation in Ecuador until 1992 - fraudulent reports were filed claiming dangerous contamination was found at Amazon oil well sites.
The person who's signature is on the report and said to be its author, Dr. Charles Calmbacher, gave sworn testimony made in a deposition released by Chevron today that he did not sign or write the report that was used as a major arguing case by The Amazon Defense Coalition against Chevron.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Charles Calmbacher's name was misspelled on the very same report that lawyers suing Chevron said was written by him, and Calmbacher said his report exonerated Chevron - that "I concluded that I did not see significant contamination that posed immediate threat to the environment or to humans or wildlife around it," in a statement provided to the WSJ by Chevron.
According to an email from Karen Hinton, a spokesperson for the Amazon Defense Coalition, which serves as the "fiscal agent" for the lawsuit and organizational home for the plaintiff's legal work in Ecuador...
"Dr. Calmbacher clearly agreed to have his signature placed on materials, including reports, that were to be submitted to the court, and he acknowledged he was actively reviewing the reports with out local, technical team. We are bewildered, frankly, at his testimony"
Hinton points to comments made by Dr. Calmbacher on August 27th, 2004, when the New York Times quoted him as saying "Their defense is a lot like the tobacco industry saying there is no evidence linking smoking and lung cancer." However, according to a news post on Chevron's website, the statement was made before Calmbacher started the work and finished the report.
The Chevron website press release explains...
After the lawsuit was filed against Chevron in 2003, the plaintiffs' lawyers nominated Dr. Calmbacher, and the court appointed him to conduct judicial inspections of oil well sites in the former Petroecuador-Texaco Petroleum Co. concession area to assess alleged environmental damage. Dr. Calmbacher led those inspections for the plaintiffs, supervising the taking of soil and water samples, from August to October 2004.
The fraudulent reports were filed in February and March 2005, and later used by Lago Agrio court appointee Richard Cabrera in his $27 billion damage assessment against Chevron. Cabrera never investigated Sacha 94 or Shushufindi 48, yet specified more than $101 million damages based on the fabricated findings. Dr. Calmbacher also inspected Sacha 6 and Sacha 21, yet the plaintiffs' lawyers failed to submit reports containing his conclusions regarding those well sites. Dr. Calmbacher testified that he did not find a risk to human health or the environment, or a need for further clean-up, at any of the Texaco Petroleum-remediated sites he inspected. He also said he never concluded that Texaco Petroleum's remediation in Ecuador in the 1990's was not successful.
So, the Amazon Defense Coalition's leaving out a key detail regarding who filed the report. The person all of this falls on is Steven Donziger, the lead lawyer on this case, who's made a name for himself and admitted that he would make billions from a win against Chevron as I explained in this video in 2008:
Hinton of the Amazon Defense Coalition was contacted for a response on the disconnect between the statement she pointed to from the New York Times in 2004 and the completion and filing of the Calmbacher report in 2005.
The main question is who falsified and filed that report?
Stay tuned.
You bring up the timing of Dr. Calmbacher's statement in the NY Times (Aug 27, 2004) and say he hadn't started his work but in fact, if you read his deposition, he had in fact begun his work, had visited some of the contaminated areas, and he states that during his 4th trip to Ecuador (Aug 14-Sept 22, 2004), he did the 2 site inspections he was responsible for. Law firm Gibson Dunn is notorious for finding ways to use slimy legal maneuvering to serve their corporate clients no matter what and they've succeeded again... to the detriment of tens of thousands of people suffering in Ecuador from contamination left behind by Chevron/Texaco.
ReplyDeleteDoes not explain the timing issue. The REPORT was filed in 2005, not 2004. Gibson Dunn lawfirm's not the subject here. The timing of events and the doctor's signature and statements are.
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