August 17, 2018
Ecuador may loose legal suit against Chevron, according to Ecuadorean State Attorney Iñigo Salvador
Ecuador appears to have failed in its efforts to enforce a multi billion-dollar judgment against Chevron in the domestic courts of United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Gibraltar, Ecuador is now on the defensive before international tribunals.
On August 7, Ecuadorean State Attorney General Iñigo Salvador admitted that the Chevron case will probably end in legal defeat as it makes its way through international arbitration panels.
Iñigo Salvador stated, “Unfortunately, it’s most probable that we’ll lose the case,”. He added that “despite the publicity, propaganda and communications campaigns about an issue, an international court ultimately prioritizes other considerations. The money, used in all of those campaigns, will simply end up being money lost.” Those “other considerations” include facts, which are bolstering Chevron’s counterattack against Ecuador.
Why is Chevron likely to win ?
What did Ecuador do to justify Chevron’s BIT suit?
The Lago Agrio regional court, in Ecuador, issued a judgment in 2011, awarding $18.2 billion to the plaintiffs. In 2013 Ecuador’s National Court of Justice affirmed the judgment but reduced the amount to $9.5 billion.
Chevron at present does not have any assets in Ecuador, so plaintiffs attempted to exemplify (to make an official copy of a document from public records under seal or to transcribe a legal document.) their judgment in the United States (and subsequently in other countries).
But in 2014, U.S. District Court Judge Kaplan ruled that the Lago Agrio judgment against Chevron was the product of “egregious” fraud by the plaintiffs’ lawyers and was therefore unenforceable in the U.S. Among other things, the court held in its nearly 500-page opinion that Ecuador’s courts and government colluded with the plaintiffs’ lawyers to further the extortion scheme.
Chevron’s legal defenders sustained that the legal suit by Ecuador was actually, determined to be a racketeering scheme sanctionable under RICO. Enforcement efforts in other countries such as Canada, Argentina, Brazil and Gibraltar also failed, for a few other reasons.
The Plot thickens- Ecuador may end up owing more money than they thought
Wheather justice is served or not, this is what Chevron wants:
Declaratory relief: Chevron wants the Tribunal to declare, among other things, that the Lago Agrio Judgment is null and void as a matter of international law; that Ecuador committed a denial of justice and breached numerous treaty obligations in issuing and enforcing the Lago Agrio Judgment; and that neither Chevron nor TexPet have any liability or responsibility for diffuse environmental claims in Ecuador arising out of the Consortium’s operations.
- Injunctive relief: Chevron wants the Tribunal to order Ecuador to abstain from further efforts to enforce or exemplify the fraudulent Ecuadorean judgment.
- Monetary damages Chevron wants full indemnification and damages against Ecuador, including all costs and attorneys’ fees, with pre-award and post-award interest.
That would be a serious monetary loss to Ecuador, which is already plagued by economic troubles left by the fraudulent management of the country’s monetary funds, its economy and rampant corruption on the part of former president, Correa.
Correa at present has a court order of arrest nationally and internationally (with Interpol), and is at present a law fugitive.
Sources:
Part of this report were obtained from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelkrauss/2018/08/17/biting-the-dust-is-socialist-ecuador-conceding-defeat/amp/
