Steven Donziger, a former attorney who has spent decades battling Chevron Corp. over pollution in the Ecuadorian rainforest, was sentenced on Friday to six months in prison for criminal contempt of court.
The initial dispute originated in 2011 after an Ecuadorian court rendered a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron for allegedly dumping contaminated waste into the Amazon which caused the pollution of soil and water in the Lago Agrio region of Ecuador. Donziger represented the plaintiffs, a group of Indigenous people who resided in Lago Agrio, in the original lawsuit against Texaco,which has since been acquired by Chevron. Donziger and a group of Ecuadorians involved in the case were later sued by Chevron over accusations that they conspired to obtain the $9.5 billion judgment by illegal means including fraud, extortion, and bribery of the presiding judge.
In 2014, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of Chevron and held that Donziger could not seek to enforce or monetize the $9.5 billion judgment in the US. Judge Kaplan also issued an injunction barring Donziger from profiting from the judgment or trying to enforce it in the US, though he could try to enforce it elsewhere. Donziger appealed the district judges’ decision, arguing that the injunction wrongfully encroached on his ability to enforce the Ecuadorian judgment in other countries on behalf of his clients, devastated his law practice, and would preclude his clients from financing an appeal by selling interests in the Ecuadorian judgment. These effects, according to Donziger, would inflict irreparable injury on him and his clients that could not be cured by a successful appeal. The appeals court upheld Judge Kaplan’s findings in 2016.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska found Donziger in contempt of court in 2020 after he monetized and profited from the 2011 judgment through sales of his shares in the judgment, which was in direct violation of the injunction order, and refused to turn over evidence in the racketeering suit. In July of 2021, Judge Preska concluded Donziger was guilty of all six misdemeanor contempt charges against him, ruling that he “repeatedly and willfully” defied court orders to turn over information requested by Chevron that was necessary to enforce their judgment against him.
On Friday, Donziger was sentenced to six months imprisonment. Judge Preska detailed what she characterized as Donziger’s prolonged, repeated refusal to obey court orders. She stated that “it seems only the proverbial two-by-four between the eyes” would get him to properly respect the law.
