A sworn affidavit from a former judge who claims the plaintiffs offered $500,000 to the judge who issued an $18 billion judgment against Chevron.

 

In the affidavit posted on Chevron’s website, Judge Alberto Guerra Bastidas says plaintiff lawyers led by Steven Donziger paid him thousands of dollars and offered $500,000 of any settlement proceeds to Judge Nicolás Zambrano if he’d allow them to ghostwrite Zambrano’s ruling in the case.

 

The Ecuador plaintiffs fired a pre-emptive salvo at Chevron last week, saying in a news release that the oil company was “offering bribes to Ecuador judges,” “in exchange for false or misleading testimony.” They identified Guerra as one of the judges Chevron had enticed with money and offers of housing in the U.S.