Bloomberg does an admirably clear job in reporting on Chevron’s release of videos today that document a judicial bribery scheme in Ecuador. The videos involve the judge who will decide the lawsuit against the company purportedly filed on behalf of Amazonians claiming to have been injured by Texaco oil operations there in previous decades.

Included in the article, “Chevron Seeks Ecuador Judge’s Removal, Citing Bribery,” is a revealing bit of spin from the environmentalists/trial lawyers’ flack, Karen Hinton.

“We understand the seriousness of Chevron’s allegations” said Karen Hinton, a spokeswoman for the Amazon Defense Coalition, whose attorneys are representing Ecuadoreans suing Chevron. “An appropriate investigation will determine whether the allegations are true or if they are the product of a dirty tricks campaign designed and financed by the company.”

Here’s her whole statement, repeating the usual attack lines.

A litigant sincerely interested in justice would not be immediately slurring a party for bringing this information to light. But Hinton et al. have always been interested first in attacking Chevron’s reputation as part of a PR strategy designed to produce an out-of-court settlement. That’s why they try to turn the annual stockholders’ meeting into a PR circus — negative publicity. The more damage the trial lawyer/activist alliance can inflict on Chevron’s reputation (and stock), the greater the possibility of a settlement — or so they believe.

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A reminder about connections: The contingency fee lawsuit against Chevron is being financed by the Philadelphia law firm of Kohn, Swift & Graf, P.C. The firm last year hired the lobbying firm of Ben Barnes to lobby Congress on Ecuador and the environment, and Hinton Communications lists among its clients The Ben Barnes Group.

Blogger Bob McCarty has lots more on Ms. Hinton’s modus operandi.

The incoming AFL-CIO president, Richard Trumka, sure seems to enjoy throwing the veiled and not-so-veiled threats around.

Today, more than ever, we need to be a labor movement that stands by our friends, punishes its enemies, and challenges those who, well, can’t seem to decide which side they’re on.

He made those remarks today at an appearance at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. The New York Times has the story.

It’s a strange strategy, this power posturing. Reverse-TR, if you will.

Even before Chevron released its explosive videos about a bribery scheme involving the judicial proceedings against it in Ecuador (see here and here), Ecuador President Rafael Correa was making headlines in the United States for threatening retaliation against the media reporting on his government.

From Dow-Jones, “Ecuador Pres Correa Threatens To Close Private TV Station.”
And AFP, “Ecuador’s Correa to close private TV station for ‘spying’”

And here’s a nice photo of Correa and Fidel Castro from earlier in August. Correa was in Havana for medical treatment.

Chevron today released videos and materials documenting a bribery scheme that would enrich the presiding judge in Ecuador, Juan Núñez, for ruling against the company in a multibillion lawsuit orchestrated by U.S. trial lawyers and environmentalists. (See below.)

We remember Judge Núñez from the sympathetic portrait “60 Minutes” did of him in its hit piece against Chevron earlier in May. The good folks at the Business and Media Institute destroyed the CBS pseudo-news report in an analysis, “‘60 Minutes’ Promotes $27-Billion Leftist ‘Fraud’ Efforts Against Chevron.” The whole piece is worth revisiting, but especially this part about Judge Núñez, under the title, “‘60 Minutes’ Gives Pass to Ecuadoran Justice System”:

The case will be heard by Juan Nunez, a judge in Lago Agrio, Ecuador. The ruling could come at anytime and Chevron is doubtful it will get a fair ruling. Pelley’s investigation took him to the Ecuadoran court, but he didn’t press the judge on the government’s poor reputation for fair justice.

“So who is the $27-billion judge? We found Juan Nunez in his court on the third floor of this shopping mall in the Amazon town of Lago Agrio,” Pelley said. “Texaco named the town for Sour Lake, Texas where Texaco got its start. Nunez struck us as serious and thoughtful. He’s been on the case for a year and he’s been out to the waste pits. The verdict will be his decision alone. There is no jury.”

Pelley inquired to Nunez if Chevron would get a fair hearing, explaining Chevron felt otherwise.

“That is not the case,” Nunez replied through a translator. “I believe that justice has to be given to everyone as they deserve – like a good father of a family, to give a child what a child is entitled to.”

However, there is no independent rule of law in Ecuador. The country’s judiciary branch is controlled by its leftist, anti-American president, Rafeal Correa, who came to power in January 2007. Correa had actually called those who brought the suit against Chevron “heroes” according to “60 Minutes,” showing there’s no impartiality by the Ecuadoran government.

In June, major business groups including the National Association of Manufacturers wrote U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk drawing attention to trade preferences granted to country, deeply troubling in light of the corruption. From the letter:

As found by the State Department in its annual human rights report on Ecuador released in February 2009, there are concerns with “corruption and the denial of due process within [Ecuador’s] judicial system.” U.S. businesses have also continued to see Ecuador’s repudiation of its legal obligations to U.S. investors and a politicization of the judicial system.

So there is a clear pattern of corruption, well documented, now punctuated by the videos released by Chevron.

Disclosure: I’ve already disclosed this numerous times, but in June, I went to Ecuador on Chevron’s dime for an on-site briefing of the issues.

Chevron today released damning evidence of a bribery scheme to rig the court proceedings against the company in Ecuador, ostensibly for environmental damage by its predecessor — Texaco — but in reality just because Chevron is a successful U.S.-based energy company that makes a convenient target to U.S. trial lawyers and environmental activists.

What’s really surprising here is not the corruption — the rule of law has been horribly debased in Ecuador under the regime of Rafael Correa — but the blatant assumptions on display: Of course you can buy a multibillion-dollar verdict against Chevron.

Chevron has full video and transcripts documenting the bribery scheme at its website: http://www.chevron.com/ecuador/. And a Chevron news release summarizes, “Videos Reveal Serious Judicial Misconduct and Political Influence in Ecuador Lawsuit“:

SAN RAMON, Calif.– SAN RAMON, Calif., Aug. 31, 2009 – Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX) today provided authorities in Ecuador and the U.S. with video recordings that reveal a $3 million bribery scheme implicating the judge presiding over the environmental lawsuit currently pending against the company and individuals who identify themselves as representatives of the Ecuadorian government and its ruling party.

In the videos, the judge confirms that he will rule against Chevron and that appeals by the energy company will be denied – even though the trial is ongoing and evidence is still being received. A purported party official also states that lawyers from the executive branch have been sent to assist the judge in writing the decision.

The recorded meetings also show an individual who claims to be a representative of Ecuador`s ruling political party, Alianza PAIS, seeking $3 million in bribes in return for handing out environmental remediation contracts to two businessmen after the verdict is handed down. Of that sum, he said $1 million would go to Judge Juan Núñez, $1 million would go to “the presidency” and $1 million to the
plaintiffs.

The video-taped meetings occurred in May and June of 2009. Two of the meetings took place at the Quito offices of Alianza PAIS, one meeting took place in the judge`s chambers in Lago Agrio, and a second meeting involving the judge took place in a Quito hotel.

After referring the evidence of the scheme to authorities, Chevron Executive Vice President Charles James said that company lawyers will seek the disqualification of the judge in the case and annulment of his prior rulings.

“Chevron has consistently asserted that the case has involved improper complicity between the plaintiffs and Ecuador`s executive branch and other legal irregularities,” James said. “These video recordings raise additional serious questions about corruption, executive branch interference and prejudgment of the case that demand a full investigation. No judge who has participated in meetings of the type shown on these tapes could possibly deliver a legitimate decision.”

There’s more of the news release, and the video itself is also here on YouTube.

Below we note a Heritage Foundation column on the attempt to turn Medicare Secondary Payer statutes into a catch-all law permitting lawsuits for this, that and the other thing, i.e., a vast expansion of prospective liability that trial lawyers would seek to cash in on.

The language was added and then dropped from H.R. 3200, the health care bill, during its consideration by the House Ways and Means Committee.

But wait. Covering the hullabaloo town hall sponsored by Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) last week, The New York Times reported this:

Mr. Moran then apologized to the man whose identity he had questioned and added his 2 cents about why tort reform was not part of any bill. He said if it were, such a bill would have to go through the judiciary committee, which he said was one of the most partisan in Congress and would never have reported it out.

But if the Medicare Secondary Payer amendment — a measure meant to expand liability — could go through Ways and Means, why can’t language meant to limit liability also go through that committee?

From former Attorney General Ed Meese and Hans Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation, a good summary of the complicated Medicare Secondary Payer issue, subrogation and qui tam litigation. The House Ways and Means Committee recently considered — and ultimately did not pass – an amendment that would have opened wide the gates for bounty-hunting attorneys to file suit supposedly to reclaim Medicare money but really just to achieve big settlements. And they wouldn’t have to prove actual harm, but make their claims solely based on statistical data.

From “The Trial Lawyers’ Earmark: Using Medicare to Finance the Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous”

In one of the starkest examples of how plaintiffs’ lawyers want to use Congress to get rich at the expense of the American taxpayer, an amendment that would have generated abusive Medicare litigation on a massive scale–along with the usual huge attorneys’ fees–was recently added to [and then removed from] the health care reform bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The current Medicare statute simply ensures that Medicare is reimbursed for the medical benefits it pays when a third party is legally responsible for a Medicare beneficiary’s injuries or medical costs. However, the tort lawyer amendment would:

• Allow new types of lawsuits against the makers of consumer products (including food) for supposed injuries to Medicare beneficiaries based on questionable statistical speculation;
• Flood the federal courts with lawsuits that circumvent state tort law and federal requirements for class action lawsuits, diversity jurisdiction, or amount in controversy;
• Violate the privacy of Medicare beneficiaries by making their medical records available to tort lawyers without their permission (or that of the government);
• Interfere with the rights of beneficiaries against third parties responsible for their medical costs; and
• Improperly and unwisely turn the Medicare reimbursement provision into a qui tam statute that would allow plaintiffs’ lawyers to pursue claims that Medicare does not think are valid or proper, reducing the availability of medical treatment for Medicare beneficiaries.

Walter Olson of the Manhattan Institute first blew the whistle on this jaw-dropping effort to include special interest legislation in the health care bill. See his column in Forbes, “Inside the Health Care Bill.”

From The Los Angeles Times, “Port of L.A. is urged to stop lobbying over clean-trucks program,” with the sub-headline: “The port wants permission to regulate truckers as part of its effort to reduce air pollution. Trade groups object, saying that would make it easier for unions to organize the drivers.”

The port has already tried to rig the regulatory rules and now wants to rewrite federal law under the guise of clean-air activism to force independent truckers into large companies or concessions, which are either already unionized or could be pressured into unionizing. As we’ve noted before, it’s an alliance of environmentalists and labor out to ruin small businesses.

The article reports on the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and other trade groups writing the port to register their objections: “We strongly oppose the efforts of the port to support changing long-standing federal law . . . to include a provision within the Clean Truck Plan that has nothing to do with reducing truck emissions.”

The ATA has so far won arguments in court to block the Port’s “concession plans,” i.e. rules for the doing business with the port, which included a ban on independent truckers. The Port of Los Angeles’ plan illegally sought to regulate interstate commerce, a U.S. District Court judge ruled in April.

The Journal of Commerce also covers the story with the additional angle of the Port of Long Beach distancing itself from other other ports’ federal lobbying. From “Port of Long Beach Won’t Join Trucking Regulatory Bid.”

He’s addressing the British economy in a British political landscape, but the Guardian’s columnist Neal Lawson sure comes up with familiar arguments in his piece, “How green socialism can save the UK“:

Two years into the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, with more than 2.4 million already without work, the official closure earlier this month of Britain’s only wind turbine blade manufacturing plant, Vestas, is a sharp reminder of the failure of blind reliance on free markets to solve the economic and climate change crises. The plant’s closure, with the loss of 400 jobs, was blamed on the slow pace of growth in the UK’s wind turbine market and the drawn out local planning process to agree projects.

It has brought home the reality that the changes needed to protect us from catastrophic climate change are exactly the opportunities that can catalyse an upturn in our economy. Clean, fuel-free renewable energy is a huge international growth sector – allowing countries to achieve energy security, protect themselves against volatile fossil fuel prices and stimulate economic development without the consequence of dangerous carbon emissions that are the primary cause of climate change.

Bottom line, says Mr. Lawson, “The stakes are too high to left to anonymous free market forces driven by fossil fuel and nuclear interests.”

In related news, the Blue Green Alliance tour rallies today in Dayton and gathers tomorrow for an event in Gary, Ind., where EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson speaks on the same stage with Frances Beinecke, President, Natural Resources Defense Council and Foster Stephens, President of the Gary Teachers Union.

Congress spends its last week on recess before reconvening next Tuesday in Washington. Expect one more spate-rash of stories about health care town halls, tied to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s forum on Tuesday in Waldorf, Md.

President Obama has returned to the White House before heading to Camp David on Wednesday to finish the family vacation. By the way, The Washington Post has a new online feature, the POTUS Tracker.

California may drive the news this week with the fires (Mt. Wilson webcam) and the special primary election to fill the East Bay congressional seat of Ellen Tauscher.

The National Association of Manufacturers and National Federation of Independent Business continue advertising in 13 states on the economic consequences of passing cap-and-trade climate legislation.

Executive Branch: Defense Secretary Robert Gates today visits the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter plant in Fort Worth, and then the L-3 reconnaissance drone facility in Greensville. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stops the Rural Tour in Zanesville, Ohio, today with Sen. Sherrod Brown and Rep. Zack Space. Energy Secretary Chu speaks at a two-day conference at New Mexico State, “Re-Energize America: Policy, Practice, and Possibility for America’s Energy Future.” EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is in Gary, Ind., Tuesday for “Green Jobs” rally sponsored by the union-environmentalist Blue-Green Alliance. (The Alliance members: USW, Sierra Club, CWA, NRDC, LIUNA, SEIU and UWUA.)

Economic Reports: From once-again profitable Seattle Times, news of a busy week of reports. “On Monday are the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) index on manufacturing and the latest figures on auto sales. Tuesday are reports on factory orders, worker productivity and labor costs, plus the release of the minutes from the recent two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. Figures on retail sales and the ISM’s index on the service sector are out Thursday. The U.S. unemployment rate for August is Friday.” The Washington Post’s week ahead focuses on Friday’s unemployment report.