From: Reuters
Chevron has arranged for two prominent criminal defense attorneys in the San
Francisco Bay Area to represent the men who secretly videotaped a purported
bribery scheme in Ecuador, apparently to block an investigation to determine the
company`s own role in orchestrating the incident to disrupt a trial where
Chevron faces a $27 billion liability, according to news reports and the Amazon
Defense Coalition.
The attorneys, Cristina Arguedas and Mary McNamara, are well-known in the San
Francisco Bay Area for representing high-profile clients. Arguedes currently
represents baseball great Barry Bonds on perjury and obstruction of justice
charges, while McNamara represented Victor Conte in the BALCO drug scandal that
ensnared Marian Jones and implicated several top U.S. track stars.
Chevron has confirmed that Arguedes represents Diego Borja, a Chevron contractor
who the plaintiffs claim tried to bribe an Ecuadorian official as part of an
illegal sting operation. McNamara represents Wayne Hansen, described by Chevron
as an American businessman who with Borja also shot secret video of a purported
bribery scheme where he was trying to secure an environmental clean-up contract
should Chevron lose the case.
Chevron has acknowledged that it will consider paying the legal fees for the two
men, according to news reports that quote Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson.
Chevron had not previously disclosed it had helped Borja and Hansen secure
lawyers or pay their legal fees.
On August 31, the day Chevron released the tapes, it claimed in a press release
that it had "no relationship" with Hansen and had only helped Borja relocate to
the United States.
The latest developments underscore that Chevron has dirty hands in the matter
and is trying to make it as difficult as possible for its role in the bribery
scheme to be investigated, said Karen Hinton, a spokeswoman for the Amazon
communities suing the company in Ecuador, where the oil giant faces a $27.3
billion liability. Chevron posted the secret videos on YouTube on August 31,
just weeks before an expected final judgment in the trial, instead of turning
them over to authorities. The company first had possession of the tapes in early
June.
It is generally accepted in the legal profession that a corporation will pay the
fees of a criminal defense lawyer to represent an individual who has information
that could implicate the company in wrongdoing, with the hope that the person
will be discouraged from testifying against the company, said Hinton.
"The fact that Chevron secured the services of these prominent attorneys raises
a serious question about whether it is doing so pursuant to some agreement it
had with Borja and Hansen," said Hinton. "Since Chevron had vigorously denied
any relationship with either of these men, it should explain why it appears to
be paying these very expensive criminal defense lawyers to represent them."
"The key question that needs to be investigated by U.S. authorities is whether
Borja and Hansen acted on behalf of Chevron to contrive evidence that would
disrupt and delay a trial, so the company could avoid paying a liability,"
Hinton added. "If that`s the case, Chevron would have an interest in shielding
them from investigators. What better way to do that than to make sure they have
lawyers paid for by Chevron?"
Chevron is accused in the lawsuit -- which is being held in Ecuador at the
company`s request -- of dumping billions of gallons of waste into Amazon
waterways when Texaco (bought by Chevron in 2001) operated an oil concession
from 1964 to 1990. A court-appointed Special Master found that 100% of Chevron`s
former well sites in Ecuador are highly contaminated with cancer-causing toxins.
The Special Master also found that Chevron`s own evidence proves the case
against the company.
The YouTube videos show Hansen and Borja discussing a $3 million bribe with an
Ecuadorian man, Patricio Garcia, who claimed he was connected to Ecuador`s
government. The ostensible purpose of the bribe was for Hansen to secure a
contract to perform environmental remediation should Chevron lose the case,
according to the oil company. But Chevron has presented no evidence Garcia was
connected to Ecuador`s government, although he appears to have been a former
low-level official of the governing party.
"Offering a bribe to Garcia to influence Ecuador`s government is like trying to
influence the White House by offering a bribe to a maintenance worker at the
Democratic National Committee," said Hinton. "There is no logic to it unless it
was part of a script contrived by Chevron."
Chevron has produced no independent evidence to confirm the men were actually
trying to bribe the official, as opposed to stage-managing a meeting to create
"evidence" Chevron could use to blemish the trial. More suspicious is that there
appears to be no logical reason to discuss a remediation contract given that the
appeals process will delay a final judgment for years, and that no determination
has been made that the judge would have any role in awarding or approving
remediation contracts, said Andrew Woods, an American lawyer who advises the
plaintiffs.
Several sources, including trial judge Juan Nunez, have charged Chevron with
doctoring the tapes by splicing them together. Though Chevron has said both
Borja and Hansen were taping, the company has released only one video. The
evidence that Judge Nunez said he would rule against Chevron appears fabricated,
as the judge is off camera at the time and on 13 other occasions had told Borja
and Hansen that he had not decided how he would rule.
Hinton pointed out that Chevron thus far has refused to release the full tapes,
allowed access to the person who edited them, revealed the name of a forensics
expert who examined the tapes, or clarified the role of its own lawyers in
scripting the meetings that were taped. It also has provided no information on
Hansen`s relationship to the company or his work history, or specified how much
it has paid Borja to come to the U.S. And now, the two key witnesses - Borja and
Hansen -- are unavailable for questioning because Chevron has arranged for them
to have criminal defense lawyers, said Hinton.
"This looks more and more like a scheme planned down to the last detail at the
highest levels of Chevron`s headquarters in the U.S.," said Hinton. "It is clear
that the only possible way to get to the truth of what happened is through an
investigation from U.S. authorities that includes questioning of Chevron`s own
lawyers."
Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at Loyola Law School in
Los Angeles, was quoted by Bloomberg on September 9 as saying that Borja and
Hansen could face penalties for secretly recording the meetings.
In relation to McNamara`s representation of Hansen, Levinson told Bloomberg:
"Either Chevron has turned into the biggest Good Samaritan out there or they
have allied interests with this man …. The ball is in Chevron`s court to give a
better explanation of whether they`ll pay his legal costs out of the goodness of
their heart or as part of a contractual arrangement."
On her website, Arguedas says she has represented "dozens of high-profile
clients-many of whom prefer to remain anonymous-charged with public corruption,
securities fraud, intellectual-property theft, environmental offenses, sex
crimes, drug manufacturing and trafficking, and murder, as well as hundreds of
lesser-known individuals accused of far less serious crimes." McNamara is
described on her firm`s website as a "Northern California Super Lawyer".