Chevron Says Ecuador Pollution Records Fabricated

[Zorro]

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Chevron has never made a pretense of playing nice with the U.S. lawyers suing it over pollution left over from when its Texaco unit was drilling for oil in the jungles of Ecuador. Earlier this year it got an Ecuadorian judge tossed from the case after releasing incriminating videotapes in which a pair of sketchy remediation contractors discussed what may or may not be post-trial financial arrangements with the judge. Today it lobbed another grenade in the direction of the plaintiffs, releasing a deposition in which an expert says he never signed documents that were filed with the court under his name.

In the deposition -- the nasty bits helpfully highlighted in yellow for reporters -- Charles Calmbacher Ph.D, a Georgia industrial-hygiene expert, says he was hired by the lead plaintiff lawyer, Stephen Donziger, to examine former Texaco drilling sites in Ecuador in 2004. After several flights to Latin America and a bad case of dengue fever, Calmbacher says, he was fired. Later reports bearing his signature were filed in the court in Lago Agrio, Ecuador. Calmbacher, in the March 30 deposition, says he never signed any reports indicating the presence of "contamination that posed an immediate threat to the environment or humans," nor did he offer any opinions about the cost of remediating those sites. Yet reports containing these details were filed, one with a page bearing his signature...

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More at: http://blogs.forbes.com/docket/2010/04/05/chevron-says-ecuador-pollution-records-fabricated/