Chevron Ecuador’s Steven Donziger And Theranos Elizabeth Holmes Have Fraud In Common

Chevron Ecuador’s Steven Donziger Is Like Elizabeth Holmes Of Theranos Fraud – Donziger Admits Scheme Is To “Make F-King Money”

Disbarred lawyer Steven Donziger volition beryllium sentenced Friday, Oct. 1, for transgression contempt by United States District Judge Loretta Preska successful a New York courtroom. Donziger faces six months’ imprisonment.

How We Got Here With Steven Donziger, Chevron, and Ecuador

That is the latest occurrence successful a ineligible saga that extends backmost to 1993, erstwhile a then-youthful way lawyer named Steven Donziger saw a mode to marque that “f-king money” by accusing Texaco of not doing its portion successful biology cleanup of lands the lipid institution utilized successful concern with Ecuador’s state-owned Petroecuador Oil Company. Donziger’s assertion was that helium and his ineligible squad were moving connected behalf of 30,000 indigenous Ecuadorians, but the information was the radical helium claimed to assistance had nary thought who helium was oregon what helium was doing. Meanwhile Texaco started and completed its biology cleanup successful 1998, and past near Ecuador.

With that, Donziger and squad ne'er erstwhile filed a suit against Petroecuador, adjacent though it yet became the majority-owner of the Texaco / Petroecuador concern called TexPet by 1992 – 1 twelvemonth earlier Donziger’s archetypal ineligible action.

Steven pressed on, continuing to physique his ineligible strategy and relationships successful Ecuador, and yet recovered an state successful the leftist authorities of then-new Ecuador President Rafael Correa, successful 2006. In becoming buddy-buddy with Correa, Donziger acceptable for himself and his squad a spot wherever they could motorboat doctored biology studies and adjacent manner their ain ineligible judgement against Chevron. In 2008, I archetypal pointed retired Donizger’s tendency to get affluent from the ineligible attack, and why:

Eventually, Donziger’s strategy worked and successful 2009, an Ecuador Court handed down a $19 cardinal judgement against Chevron, which was past reduced to $9.5 billion. The clime that produced the result was shady, but nary grounds was disposable until outtakes from a movie called CRUDE were made disposable to Chevron, and yet the public. The movie was a purely ego-driven merchandise marked with a fig of examples of Donziger openly bragging astir what a lawyer could get distant with doing successful Ecuador, from intimidating and bribing judges to ghost-writing the $19 cardinal judgement. In different words, CRUDE revealed the beingness of a corrupt organization, and that led to Donziger’s ineligible conflict against Chevron’s archetypal claims of fraud successful the signifier of R.I.C.O violations successful 2011.

In 2014 Chevron prevailed, the justice barred enforcement of the $9.5 cardinal judgment. Donziger, faced with an American justice helium could not bribe oregon control, treated New York Judge Lewis A. Kaplan with implicit disrespect, and refusing to travel Kaplan’s bid successful turning implicit grounds associated with his fraud against Chevron. That led to a drawstring of ineligible challenges astir the substance of Donziger’s contempt of court, and which were resolved connected July 26th, erstwhile US District Court Judge Loretta Preska ruled that Donziger was blameworthy of six contempt charges brought against him.

In warring that tribunal conflict against the archetypal ruling of contempt, Donziger was already nether location apprehension for 600 days. He utilized that punishment to telephone successful immoderate sympathetic receptor helium could gully to assistance him archer his communicative of an abusive jailing astatine location that took his state away. Now, the question is, what volition Donziger’s punishment be, since helium mislaid the lawsuit July 26th?

As elaborate successful Michael Krauss’ Forbes story this week, Donziger has received a litany of letters
of enactment seeking leniency for the disgraced Harvard lawyer who bribed an Ecuadorian judge,
faked and tampered with evidence, laundered money, and committed different crimes arsenic portion of a
massive fraud against Chevron successful Ecuador.

The “amicus briefs” submitted connected his behalf, including 1 from fraud co-conspirator Amazon Watch, each reason that Donziger should beryllium sentenced to “time served,” adjacent though, arsenic Krauss notes, Donziger has not served immoderate time. Instead, “he has been confined to his home, from which helium has requested and obtained permission to depart connected respective occasions for household obligations, employment, lawyer visits, spiritual services, aesculapian appointments, and different activities approved by his Pretrial Services Officer.”

Many of the supportive letters picture Donziger’s altruistic motives successful the fraud helium committed against Chevron and its shareholders. Some adjacent marque him retired to beryllium similar Mother Theresa, claiming that helium committed his crimes against an lipid institution to assistance mediocre Ecuadorian villagers.

Stay tuned.