$19B Ecuador Liability Puts Chevron CEO on Hot Seat at Annual Meeting Tomorrow

[Judi Lynn]

$19B Ecuador Liability Puts Chevron CEO on Hot Seat at Annual Meeting Tomorrow

Submitted by: Amazon Watch
Posted: May 28, 2013 – 05:57 PM EST

OAKLAND, Calif., May 28 /CSRwire/ - Facing growing unrest from shareholders and environmental activists and forced to testify about his own role in the $19 billion Ecuador case, Chevron CEO John Watson will be under enormous pressure tomorrow at the company’s annual meeting where rainforest indigenous villagers and their investor allies plan to confront him over his company’s toxic dumping in the Amazon.

In a stunning rebuke to Watson, a New York federal judge earlier this month ordered that he sit for a sworn deposition to be taken by lawyers for the villagers and one of their representatives, New York-based attorney Steven Donziger. (See the judicial order here and a Reuters article here.) And just last week, the environmental group Amazon Watch launched a pressure campaign to oust Watson as CEO due to his failure to deal with court orders that the company clean up the Ecuador disaster.

Watson likely will have to answer questions about his own role in the case, including suspicious payments from Chevron officials for witness testimony, among other hot-button topics that the villagers say prove Chevron committed crimes in Ecuador. Watson also orchestrated Chevron's purchase of Texaco, giving him intimate knowledge of the liability that has now hamstrung the company in Argentina, threatens access to new reserves, and ballooned into a $19 billion liability. The deposition of Watson had been furiously opposed by Chevron’s lawyers at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, who are facing their own ethical challenges in defending the oil giant’s toxic dumping in Ecuador. (See this court ruling and this blog.)

At the Chevron annual meeting, scheduled for May 29 at company headquarters near San Francisco, Watson will also be confronted by Servio Curipoma, a 39-year old cacao farmer from Chevron's former concession area. Curipoma was witness to the company's egregious oil extraction methods that dumped oil waste on the roads and left behind hundreds of unremediated covered oil pits. Curipoma lost both his parents and a sister-in-law to cancer doctors have attributed to local drinking water contaminated by toxic crude waste.

More:
http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/35668--19B-Ecuador-Liability-Puts-Chevron-CEO-on-Hot-Seat-at-Annual-Meeting-Tomorrow

[bemildred]

1. Good, he is the responsible party.

I have had more than enough of these dumb self-centered irresponsible assholes fucking things up for everybody else.

[Catherina]

2. Hanging's too good for the Chevron criminals and their collaborators

[ocpagu]

3. So, Mrs. Watson...

What will you do about Ecuador?





He received $24,726,716 in compensations in 2011. Apparently screwing things up is a very profitable activity.

http://www.forbes.com/profile/john-watson/

[Socialistlemur]

4. They seem to be doing quite well in Venezuela

Ali Moshiri, the chevron head in South America lives in Caracas. He's really friendly with the government. My guess is this is a lot of grandstanding. The $2 billion loan to PDVSA should keep Ecuador in line. Don't you think?