CHEVRON'S FRAUD IN THE WORDS OF THE ECUADORIAN GOVERNMENT

Excerpts taken from Ecuadorian Government motion filed in a U.S. federal court accusing Chevron of fraud in its suppoed "clean-up" operation of the massive pollution it caused in Ecuador's rainforest during the period of its operations in the country.

"ChevronTexaco Corporation and Texaco Petroleum Company (together, "Defendants"), in order to assert an additional affirmative defense, namely, that the 1995 Settlement Agreement and the 1998 Release (collectively, the "Agreements") are void, unenforceable and subject to rescission because induced by Defendants' fraudulent misrepresentations, all as more specifically set forth in Plaintiffs' accompanying papers".
(page 1 of Motion - see below)

"Defendants, through intentional or negligent material misrepresentations of fact, fraudulently or negligently induced Plaintiffs to sign the Agreements ... Defendants, inter alia, presented to Plaintiffs false and misleading information that defendants had a duty to disclose, but failed to do so. Defendants did so for the purpose of inducing Plaintiffs to execute the Agreements, and Plaintiffs reasonably relied to their detriment on this misleading information".
(page 3 of Memo of Law - see below)

"Plaintiffs consequently agreed to a remediation plan proposed by Defendants that was hopelessly insufficient, in that it failed to disclose numerous unremediated toxic sites. While Defendants identified 137 unlined toxic pits for which it promised remediation, it failed to disclose more than 100 others—and instead took affirmative steps to conceal their very existence from Plaintiffs. Evidence before the court in the Ecuador Action discloses that Defendants covered the surface of the unlined toxic “pits” with thousands of pounds of soil or “fill,” thereby concealing their existence. To this day, these disguised pits are continuing sources of pollution; recent toxicity tests just beneath the surface confirm that no remediation has been performed on them; and the pools of hazardous substances just beneath the surface continuously release into the ground, leak into groundwater and seep into nearby vegetation and surficial waterways".
(page 5 & 6 of Memo of Law - see below)

Motion and Memorandum of Law: