Chevron: Evidence Fabricated
BY CHRONICLE STAFF
The evidence against Chevron in a $16 billion environmental lawsuit in
"A key report submitted to a court hearing in the lawsuit in Ecuador contains fabricated and erroneous evidence [and] has exaggerated claims for damages and was developed in collusion with the plaintiffs and their U.S. attorneys," Chevron said in a statement today.
Chevron's subsidiary Texaco operated an oil field consortium with
US DISMISSES LAWSUIT
However, in 1993 a group of Indians in the affected areas -- represented by
Meanwhile, Bonifaz filed another lawsuit in the
That scheme apparently included the pending Ecuadorian lawsuit. In April, the court handling the case received a report from Richard Cabrera, a geologist appointed by the court to investigate the environmental damage. His report stated that Chevron was guilty of the damage and should pay between $7 and $16 billion in compensation.
Chevron counters that the real culprit is Petroecuador, which caused more than 1,000 oil spills in
MANIPULATION OF EVIDENCE
Chevron has sought to have the case dismissed in
• Presented no evidence of pollution by Texaco Petroleum, erroneously assigning $1.4 billion in remediation costs to pits he did not visit and do not exist;
• Presented no evidence to support cancer claims — neither identifying a single individual nor including a single medical report;
• Did not take a single drinking water sample to establish contamination, yet he assigned $428 million in damages to be paid to improve Ecuador’s potable water system;
Chevron also says that the plaintiffs helped Cabrera compile the report, accompanying and assisting him on field trips, influencing the content of his report by providing him methodological tools such as questionable surveys and pre-written reports to use as report exhibits.
“The findings of the Cabrera report are clearly fraudulent and intended to cause damage to this U.S. company and its shareholders,” Charles James, Chevron’s general counsel, said in the statement today. “This report would not withstand scrutiny — be it technical, scientific or legal — in any responsible, independent court anywhere in the world. What’s more, plaintiffs ensured his work was conducted in an atmosphere of intense political and presidential pressure to avoid government remediation responsibilities, procure an exorbitant judgment for local residents against a foreign company and enhance the bank accounts of plaintiff lawyers. The pro-plaintiffs bias, the lack of supporting data and scientific rigor, and the political interference are all duly reflected in Mr. Cabrera’s report and findings.”
BIASED INVESTIGATION
Even before Cabrera's report, Chevron had repeatedly denounced him as biased an unqualified. In a complaint filed with the court in July 2007, Chevron said Cabrera began his investigation by inspecting a site which Texaco never used. "This poorly intended act committed by Cabrera, to choose a site that has never been operated by [Texaco], is yet another demonstration of the bias he displays towards plaintiffs including his intent to manipulate historic information to try to favor the interests of plaintiffs," Chevron said in its complaint last year.
In its statement, Chevron addresses ten key points of the Cabrera report and investigation that highlight the flaws and errors of the process:
1. Lack of Causation. Cabrera completely ignored his court-ordered mandate to determine causation and chronology of environmental conditions. Instead, he just arbitrarily assigned liability to Texaco for every instance of environmental impact in the former concession areas. By ignoring chronology and causation, Cabrera even makes Texaco Petroleum (Texpet) liable for all impact caused solely by Petroecuador during its 18-plus years of operation of the concession.
2. Failure to Inspect and Falsifying “Evidence.” Cabrera ignored court orders that he must inspect every site, visiting only 48 of 316 wells and one of 19 production stations. Instead, Cabrera reviewed aerial photos to identify pits and used those photos incompetently and dishonestly. For example, Cabrera submitted certain aerial photos with his report and declared that various items in the photos — like trees, tanks and shadows — were pits. He also submitted photos of pits constructed by Petroecuador after 1990, backdated the photos to the 1970s and declared that the pits were constructed earlier by Texpet. Cabrera, therefore, intentionally grossly overstated the number of pits.
3. Arbitrary Determination of Remediation Scope. With no justification, Cabrera arbitrarily concluded that 80 percent of well pits and 100 percent of production-station pits need to be remediated, regardless of past or current remediation efforts. Cabrera then further fabricated and overstated the magnitude of remediation required for each pit, arbitrarily assuming that each pit needs to be remediated to a depth of 4 meters (13.12 ft) and also that an area around each pit of an additional 50 percent of the pit surface area needs to be remediated.
4. Gross Overstatement of Remediation Cost. Cabrera grossly overstated the cost to remediate pits. Though Petroecuador has been remediating pits to
5. 90 Percent of Damages Unrelated to Task. Even though Cabrera’s recommended remediation cost of $1.7 billion is wildly overstated, that figure is only approximately 10 percent of the total damages he recommends. The remainder of Cabrera’s alleged damages and proposed remedies are unrelated to the environmental impact that the court ordered him to assess. For example, well beyond his perceived or imagined expertise, Cabrera recommends millions of dollars in damages based on his undocumented and uninvestigated claim that Texpet’s workers committed human rights violations against the local population.
6. Fabricated Cancer Claims. Cabrera’s recommendation of $2.9 billion for alleged “excess cancer deaths” is completely fabricated. Cabrera does not identify a single individual, offer a single medical report or provide a single fact to support this conclusion. Cabrera also disregards official
7. Arbitrary and Excessive Budgets for Medical Facilities. Cabrera’s recommendation for $480 million for a healthcare system endowed for 50 years and overseen by an unidentified “assembly” has no basis, and there are no plans or facts justifying any aspects of the cost.
8. No Basis for “Indigenous Population Impacts.” Cabrera inexplicably recommends $430 million to repair supposed impacts on indigenous culture, despite that none are related to Texaco Petroleum’s operations. This includes buying back land for the indigenous people, even though the government of
9. Unjustified Assessment to Improve Petroecuador’s Infrastructure. Cabrera inexplicably recommends $375 million to improve Petroecuador’s infrastructure, despite that Petroecuador conducted an audit and certified that the facilities that Texpet turned over to it were in good condition. Cabrera also ignores Petroecuador’s demonstrated and acknowledged record of failing to invest necessary resources to maintain its equipment and facilities.
10. No Basis Whatsoever for Unjust Enrichment. Cabrera completely fabricated a claim for unjust enrichment damages of $8.3 billion. There is no basis for the claim and no foundation for the number, especially considering that the
INDICTMENTS
Last week,
Chevron intends to continue pursuing the rights it is owed under the law and its agreements with the government of
"Recent events in
AVOIDING RESPONSIBILITY
The indictments mark a renewal of the Ecuadorian state’s attempts to disavow contractual obligations owed to Chevron from contracts signed in 1995 and 1998 and ignore the findings of prior Prosecutor Generals who have repeatedly investigated fraud allegations and found them to be meritless, Chevron says.
"
In July this year, the plaintiffs’ advocates held a news conference in
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