Workers deny Dole defrauding conspiracy

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Workers deny Dole defrauding conspiracy
May 15, 2010
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Several banana workers denied Friday they were part of a conspiracy to defraud Dole Foods Co. by falsely claiming in a damage lawsuit to have worked on a banana plantation and been made sterile by pesticides.

Seven workers at a news conference in Nicaragua, where the contamination allegedly occurred in the 1970s, accused Dole of having tricked or bribed them into casting doubt on claims in the suit that led to a $2.3 million judgment against the company.
They said they wrongly agreed to testify on behalf of Dole in a court case under way in Los Angeles that there had been a fraud in the recruiting or testing of some of the plaintiffs in the suit.

“They tricked and bribed humble farmworkers who, out of poverty, agreed to lie to overturn the ruling,” said lawyer Antonio Hernandez. About 1,000 former workers gathered for the Friday event.

A judge in Los Angles is considering throwing out the 2007 damages award for workers exposed to the pesticide DBCP. Some of the workers involved in the U.S. lawsuit against Dole were later found either not to have been made sterile by pesticides or never to have worked at the company’s plantations.

Francisco Cano Centeno, 50, who said he worked as a plantation foreman, said Dole offered him money to testify in the latest court case.

Read more: http://www.suntimes.com/business/2277360,dole-foods-defraud-conspiracy-051510.article

[MisterP]

1. didn't Chevron do a PR offensive against Ecuadorean Indians to torpedo a suit? nt

[Judi Lynn]

2. PR offensive, and multi-level offensive, absolutely. Hideous people.

They've used every devious, vicious action available to them, and they aren't finished yet.

Here's an article I just saw from 2008:

SPONSORED BY: LOBBYING
A $16 Billion Problem
Chevron hires lobbyists to squeeze Ecuador in toxic-dumping case. What an Obama win could mean.

Eduardo Valenzuela / AP
Toxic: Indigenous workers in western Ecuador
By Michael Isikoff | NEWSWEEK
Published Jul 26, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Aug 4, 2008

Few legal battles have been more exotic than the lawsuit tried over the past five years in a steamy jungle courtroom in Ecuador's Amazon rain forest. Brought by a group of U.S. trial lawyers on behalf of thousands of indigenous Indian peasants, the suit accuses Chevron of responsibility for the dumping (allegedly conducted by Texaco, which Chevron bought in 2001) of billions of gallons of toxic oil wastes into the region's rivers and streams. Activists describe the disaster as an Amazon Chernobyl. The plaintiffs—some suffering from cancer and physical deformities—have showed up in court in native garb, with painted faces and half naked. Chevron vigorously contests the charges and has denounced the entire proceeding as a "shakedown."

But this spring, events for Chevron took an ominous turn when a court-appointed expert recommended Chevron be required to pay between $8 billion and $16 billion to clean up the rain forest. Although it was not the final verdict, the figures sent shock waves through Chevron's corporate boardroom in San Ramon, Calif., and forced the company for the first time to disclose the issue to its shareholders. It has also now spawned an unusually high-powered battle in Washington between an army of Chevron lobbyists and a group of savvy plaintiff lawyers, one of whom has tapped a potent old schoolmate—Barack Obama.

Chevron is pushing the Bush administration to take the extraordinary step of yanking special trade preferences for Ecuador if the country's leftist government doesn't quash the case. A spokesman for U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab confirmed that her office is considering the request. Attorney Steven Donziger, who is coordinating the D.C. opposition to Chevron, says the firm is "trying to get the country to cry uncle." He adds: "It's the crudest form of power politics."

Chevron's powerhouse team includes former Senate majority leader Trent Lott, former Democratic senator John Breaux and Wayne Berman, a top fund-raiser for John McCain—all with access to Washington's top decision makers. (A senior Chevron exec has met with Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte on the matter.) Chevron argues that it has been victimized by a "corrupt" Ecuadoran court system while the plaintiffs received active support from Ecuador's leftist president, Rafael Correa—an ally of Venezuela's Hugo Chávez. The company says a loss could set a dangerous precedent for other U.S. multinationals. "The ultimate issue here is Ecuador has mistreated a U.S. company," said one Chevron lobbyist who asked not to be identified talking about the firm's arguments to U.S. officials. "We can't let little countries screw around with big companies like this—companies that have made big investments around the world."

More:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/149090

[bemildred]

3. Would Dole and it's high paid lawyers lie and conspire?

Oh, heaven forfend.