The lawyer for the plaintiffs: Mr. Steven Donziger.I have written this analyisis in http://www.petroleumworld.com/ in order to try to put some balance in what I consider a pretty lopsided view of this affair in the web. Public opinion tends to assume that a big oil company is the villain and the little people the good guys in any confrontation between the two. This could be true in many cases but in this specific case it does not seem to be. In putting thids paper together I have received information from both the plaintiffs and the defendant and I have reached my own conclussions.
Just for the record, I have not received remuneration from any source for publishing this analysis.
I used to work for a Fortune 100 US Co. in an executive position of our L.A. business that got involved in a lawsuit as defendants with a distributor in Ecuador.
ResponderEliminarAfter a couple of years of litigation, we came to find out that OUR attorneys were on the take by the plaintiff's attorneys, them knowing beforehand every strategic legal move we were making and literally destroying every effort to defend ourselves until we finally found out what was going on. But then it was too late and we lost, judgement against us in the 50 Million $$ range.
We had no choice but to pay (not that it made a dent in our operation as a whole) and closed our manufacturing operation in Ecuador. Loss for the country: approx. 1,300 direct employees plus the trickle down effect of distributors, service providers, raw material suppliers etc. No other company invested in manufacturing this particular line of products since - it's all imported now and I guess paid with these dirty and contaminated oil dollars.
If you're looking for justice in Ecuador, you won't find it. Do what Taiwan just did, insist in some iron clad collateral, or stay away.