Chevron Corporation has asked an Ecuador judge to discard a court-requested assessment of current environmental conditions in Ecuador's Amazon, as a result of fraud, gross errors and conflict of interest. In its filing with the court, Chevron documents a litany of fundamental flaws within the assessment demonstrating that the objectivity and independence of the report's author have been fully compromised, rendering the report inadmissible.

The report, filed in November 2008 with the Provincial Court of Sucumbios, recommends that the judge presiding in the ongoing environmental lawsuit assess damages of more than $27 billion, augmenting an earlier report in which $8 to $16 billion in damages was suggested. Prepared by a court appointee, Richard Cabrera, the report was intended to respond to the parties' criticism of his earlier report. Instead, Cabrera's updated filing presents no new facts or data; rather, he simply adopts the demands of plaintiffs' counsel — in some instances, word for word — to substantiate more than $11 billion in newly alleged damages.

"Judging by Mr. Cabrera's undeniable disdain for science, transparency and Ecuadorian law, he cannot be seen as an unbiased adviser to the judge," said Charles James, Chevron's general counsel. "Through his ongoing collaboration with parties who stand to benefit from this lawsuit, we believe that Mr. Cabrera has knowingly abandoned his obligations to the court and assumed the role of advocate for plaintiffs' counsel."

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