Chevron 'Sideshow' Trips Up Ecuadoreans
Chevron 'Sideshow' Trips Up Ecuadoreans
MANHATTAN (CN) - Chevron can try to freeze the assets of a group of Ecuadoreans who the company claims used fraud and extortion to win a $18.2 billion judgment against it for environmental damage in the Amazon, the 2nd Circuit ruled.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has not yet ruled on Chevron's Nov. 29 motion, which says the Ecuadoreans are hiding their money in offshore bank accounts and should surrender their assets to the custody of U.S. Marshals.
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The oil giant sued its Ecuadorean adversaries in New York, months before the Lago Agrio court delivered the $18.2 billion verdict that said Texaco had decimated rainforest lands and groundwater in a region home to 30,000 people.
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"The Ecuadorean plaintiffs are in the Ecuadorean Amazon - does Chevron really expect to confiscate their current or future assets? This is about scaring away funders and lawyers," Tyrrell wrote. "Just like the preliminary injunction, the end-game is to deprive the Ecuadorian plaintiffs of resources and of counsel, killing off their case."
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/12/13/42215.htm
