Chevron sues another funder of Ecuadorian litigation
Chevron has sued Woodsford Litigation Funding Ltd. for financing the lawyers who are trying to enforce a $9.5 billion environmental judgment against the oil giant that was obtained in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, in 2011. Chevron contends—and, last March, a federal judge in Manhattan held—that the judgment was procured by fraud, bribery, and many other crimes. Chevron’s suit against the funder—filed in Gibraltar last June, but not previously reported—alleges that Woodsford conspired with the leaders of the Ecuadorian litigation to advance “a dishonest and fraudulent prosecution of a claim” against the company…Woodsford has not yet filed papers in Gibraltar responding to the complaint. A spokesman for Woodsford denied that it was inappropriate to provide a loan at the stage it did, but he declined to elaborate.