Chevron Scared To Return ACLU's Calls Over Private Emails

Lawyers from the ACLU called Chevron to complain about trying to get personal data from the Google gmail account of their client, a writer and law professor who blogs about legal issues, including the $19 billion judgment out of Ecuador holding Chevron accountable for the massive contamination of the Amazon rainforest. 

Chevron apparently got spooked. The big, bad lawyers from Chevron didn't return the ACLU's phone call and then "mysteriously" withdrew their subpoena for the blogger's information. Chevron has subpoenaed another 100 people for their emails, too. The status of those subpoenas is unclear. Read about it below:

Chevron Asks Email Providers to Hand Over Users' Private Information

Brian Hauss, Legal Fellow, ACLU 

As our online activities become increasingly integrated into our daily lives, we leave ever expanding trails of information about ourselves in the hands of internet companies. The ACLU has fought and continues to fight the aggressive attempts of government law enforcement agencies to subpoena this private data. Now, corporations are getting in on the act. In a civil lawsuit related to its sprawling legal battle against a $19 billion Ecuadorian judgment and the plaintiffs’ lawyer who won it, it was recently revealed that Chevron issued subpoenas to Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft for information on 101 separate email accounts.

The oil giant’s subpoenas instruct the companies to turn over nine years’ worth of identifying and usage information related to the accounts at issue—including the account holders’ names, addresses, phone numbers, billing information, and IP logs (which can show geographic location). Although seemingly innocuous, this information has the potential to reveal all sorts of insights into a person’s private life. Knowing that an e-mail was sent from a church, an abortion clinic, or the headquarters of a gay rights organization can reveal something important about the person who sent it.

One of the account holders targeted by Chevron was Dr. Kevin Jon Heller, a senior lecturer at the Melbourne Law School and international law blogger for Opinio Juris. Although he is a prominent critic of Chevron’s activities in the Ecuador case, he has no substantive connection to the actual litigation. As he describes here, he first learned of the subpoena when Google’s legal department sent him an email notifying him of the demand, informing him that he would have to provide a formal legal objection within a few weeks 5 if he wanted to stop his information from being released.

The ACLU agreed to represent Dr. Heller in connection with the subpoena, and contacted Chevron’s lawyers to find out why they were seeking his private information. Despite several phone calls with Chevron’s attorneys, we never got an answer. Instead, Chevron withdrew its demand for Dr. Heller’s information entirely. And so his adventure ended as abruptly – and as mysteriously – as it began.

Chevron’s spokesman, Kent Robertson, now says that the company’s lawyers issued the subpoenas to figure out whether the designated accounts belong to key participants in the dispute. But that neither explains nor justifies Chevron’s demand for nine years’ worth of private account information on dozens of people, some of whom lack any apparent connection to the litigation. At best, Chevron’s lawyers went on a fishing expedition – at worst, they engaged in a calculated effort to intimidate the company’s adversaries. Either way, this case illustrates the need for clear rules to protect our digital privacy.

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Chevron Sting Operative Tries to Quash Subpoena and Avoid Testimony

It appears lawyers for Chevron operative Diego Borja are being very careful not to deny the shocking charges that Borja made about the oil giant's evidence tampering in the multi-billion oil contamination lawsuit filed by indigenous tribes in the Ecuadorian rainforest. Two federal judges recently ruled that Borja and his video-taping sidekick Wayne Hansen can be deposed for questioning about their role to undermine the lawsuit. A few days ago Borja's lawyers filed a motion to quash the subpoena. In legal briefs, Borja never denies the charges. Details below.

Diego Borja in U.S. Court over Charges He “Cooked Evidence” in Ecuador Lawsuit

Amazon Defense Coalition

10 November 2010 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Karen Hinton at 703-798-3109 or Karen@hintoncommunications.com

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 10 – Self-described Chevron sting operative Diego Borja, scheduled to appear in court today in San Francisco, is conceding that the oil giant “cooked” evidence to defend itself against a multi-billion oil contamination lawsuit in the Ecuadorian rainforest, according to documents filed in court.

Borja’s lawyers today are scheduled to argue their motion to quash a subpoena requiring Borja to produce evidence relating to Chevron’s operations in Ecuador, where he said he ran a “dirty tricks” operation for the oil giant. Borja has emerged as a key figure in the Ecuador lawsuit – where Chevron faces damages of up to $113 billion -- after he was caught on tape saying the oil giant “cooked evidence” to produce lower levels of toxic contaminants.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs have long charged that Chevron is violating the law in Ecuador by trying to undermine the trial, which is in the South American nation at Chevron’s request after it was filed in U.S. federal court in 1993.

The vast majority of the voluminous scientific evidence in the trial points to Chevron’s culpability for massive oil contamination throughout an area the size of Rhode Island. The contamination is producing high rates of cancer and other oil-related diseases and has decimated indigenous groups, according to evidence before the court.

Chevron has repeatedly announced it expects to lose the case, and instead has attempted to persuade its shareholders that it can avoid enforcement of the judgment by claiming that the the court and the Ecuadoran legal system are not legitimate.

In papers filed with the federal district court in San Francisco, Borja’s lawyers do not deny that he made the claims the oil giant “cooked evidence”. Instead, they argue the statements are not relevant to the international arbitration claim between Chevron and the government of Ecuador, which is the legal basis for the subpeona.

U.S. District Judge Edward M. Chen earlier had ordered Borja to appear for a deposition, writing that there is evidence “suggesting that Mr. Borja was not an innocent third party … but rather was a long-time associate of Chevron whom Chevron would pay for any favorable testimony."

Borja was caught on tape last year telling a friend that Chevron had “cooked evidence” and that he had incriminating information that if known would cause Chevron to lose the lawsuit. Borja threatened to reveal the incriminating evidence if the company did not pay him for videotapes he secretly recorded with an accomplice that attempted to discredit the Ecuadorian judge presiding over the case.

In August 2009, Chevron released the videotapes to the news media and accused the judge of bribery, even though the judge did not attend the meeting where Borja and Hansen offered a bribe and there was no evidence that the judge engaged in misconduct. The plaintiffs charged the tapes were part of a Nixon-style dirty tricks operation launched by

Chevron’s lawyers.

Chevron later relocated Borja and his family to the United States at the company’s expense, where he remains on Chevron’s payroll while living in a luxury house in a gated community. Chevron is paying the fees of his lawyers.

Hansen, who is a convicted drug trafficker who served time in prison, also has been ordered to appear for a deposition but appears to have fled California and has not been served papers, according to sources.

For more information about Borja and Hansen’s sting operation, see http://chevrontoxico.com/news-and-multimedia/borja-report/.

The court documents supporting Borja’s subpoena demonstrate that:

· Chevron claimed in a press release that Borja was a “Good Samaritan,” when in fact he was working under the direction of Chevron’s legal team since at least 2004, and he himself said he was responsible for “dirty tricks” during the trial;

· Borja formed four dummy companies for Chevron to make the tests of soil and water samples that Chevron introduced as evidence in the litigation appear independent;

· Borja’s wife also worked for Chevron, and both he and his wife signed documents as representatives of Severn Trent Labs, a supposedly independent laboratory used to test soil and water samples from the litigation;

· Borja and his Chevron “boss” attempted to infiltrate a laboratory used by the plaintiffs using false names.

Among Borja’s quotes from the tapes cited in the legal papers is the following passage:

“… I have correspondence [with Chevron officials] that talks about things you can’t even imagine, dude… they’re things that can make the Amazons win this just like this [snapping fingers]… I mean, what I have is conclusive evidence, photos of how they managed things internally.”

The tapes of Borja, made by an Ecuadorian man named Santiago Escobar, have been turned over to authorities in Ecuador and the United States.

Escobar has said that Borja indicated to him that he carried out a series of clandestine “dirty tricks” operations for Chevron in Ecuador. Escobar said Borja told him he arranged “the biggest business deal of his life” that would “take down the lawsuit” and that he had received a “ton of money” from Chevron for his work.

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