$WHACKD

Chevron sent environmental attorney Steven Donziger to prison, in the what’s being called the first-ever case of corporate prosecution.

Steven Donziger sued Chevron for contaminating the Amazon and won. Chevron was found guilty and ordered to pay $18,000,000,000. Yesterday, Donziger went to prison, in the what’s being called the first-ever case of corporate prosecution.

Over three decades of drilling in the Amazon, Chevron deliberately dumped more than 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater and 17 million gallons of crude oil into the rainforest. Chevron committed ecocide to save money—about $3 per barrel. Many experts consider it the biggest oil-related disaster in history, with the total area affected 30 times larger than the Exxon-Valdez spill. Chevron created a super-fund site in the Amazon rainforest that is estimated to be the size of Rhode Island.

Steven Donziger visited Ecuador in 1993, where he says he saw "what honestly looked like an apocalyptic disaster," including children walking barefoot down oil-covered roads and jungle lakes filled with oil. Industrial contamination caused local tribes to suffer from mouth, stomach, and uterine cancers, respiratory illnesses, along with birth defects and spontaneous miscarriages.

As an attorney, Donziger represented over 30,000 farmers and indigenous Ecuadorians in a case against Chevron and won. In 2011, Chevron was found guilty and ordered to pay $18 billion. Rather than accept this decision, the company vowed to fight the judgment "until Hell freezes over, and then fight it out on the ice." Chevron has been persecuting Steven Donziger for his involvement ever since. In an internal memo, Chevron wrote, “Our L-T [long-term] strategy is to demonize Donziger.”

Chevron sued Donziger for 60 billion dollars, which is the most any individual has ever been sued for in American legal history. Over the course of ten years, armed with a legal team numbering in the thousands, the company set out to destroy Donziger. Chevron had Donziger disbarred, froze his bank accounts, slapped him with millions in fines without allowing him a jury, forced him to wear a 24h ankle monitor, imposed a lien on his home where he lives with his family, and shut down his ability to earn a living. Donziger has been under house arrest since August 2019.

Chevron has used its clout and advertising dollars to keep the story from being reported. “I’ve experienced this multiple times with media,” Donziger said. “An entity will start writing the story, spend a lot of time on it, then the story doesn’t run.” This unprecedented legal situation is happening in New York City, the hometown of the New York Times—but the paper has yet to report on the full story.

On October 27, 2021, Donziger entered federal prison for a six-month sentence. He had already spent over 800 days in house arrest, which is four times longer than the maximum sentence allowed for this charge. Anyone who cares about the rule of law should be appalled. It is an absolute embarrassment, to our government and to our constitution, that Steven Donziger is imprisoned on US soil.

As the title states, Chevron is in the process of executing the first-ever corporate prosecution in American history. This case sets a terrible precedent for attorneys and activists seeking to hold oil companies liable for pollution. Chevron is pursuing this case—to the benefit of the entire fossil fuel industry—to dissuade future litigation that may call them to account for their role in climate change.

Lawyer Steven Donziger, Who Sued Chevron over “Amazon Chernobyl,” Ordered to Prison After House Arrest

This Lawyer Went After Chevron. Now He’s 600 Days Into House Arrest.

EDIT 1: Chevron went after him with a civil RICO lawsuit (accusing him of racketeering) because he’s trying to force Chevron to pay the $18B judgment and follow through with the clean-up. Their “argument” is that Donziger is a fraud who just wanted to extort them for big bucks. They’ve been working hard to paint him as such in the media. Chevron sued him for $60B but then dropped the damages just weeks before because they realized it would necessitate a jury. In the proceeding, Judge Kaplan (who had undisclosed investments in Chevron!) ordered Donziger to turn over his computer to Chevron (with decades of client communications!) effectively violating attorney-client privilege which is the backbone of our legal system. He refused to comply so the judge charged him with contempt of court. US attorneys declined to pursue the charge (because it was ridiculous!) so Judge Kaplan made the exceedingly rare move to get private law firm Seward & Kissel to prosecute him “in the name of” the US govt. Except Seward & Kissel has Chevron as a major client. So many conflicts of interest it’s insane.

EDIT 2: Chevron wants this to go away quietly. They have done their best to suffocate this story. Chevron does not want us to draw attention to the ecocide they deliberately committed (and were literally found guilty of!) in the Amazon. They do not want Donziger to become a household name. They don’t want to create a martyr for the cause against Big Oil. We can foil their plans by signing the MoveOn petition below and making sure this story gets shared widely.

EDIT 3: You can also follow him on Twitter. His handle is @SDonziger.

EDIT 4: I know we are all rightfully pissed off but please refrain from advocating violence in the comments. I’ve been unable to post this story on any other sub (many others have also tried and failed) so I’m really grateful to the mods for keeping it posted here. Let’s not make things difficult on them.

MoveOn Petition: Free Steven Donziger

If you want to learn more about this incident check out Chevron Toxico and watch the documentary CRUDE.

I straight up yanked this post from here: https://np.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/qhu9wm/chevron_sent_environmental_attorney_steven/