“The Chevron Tapes: Video Shows Oil Giant Allegedly Covering Up Amazon Contamination” - April 8, 2015

Another twist has emerged in a decades-long legal battle pitting residents of Ecuador's Amazon forest and their controversial trial attorney against one of the world's largest energy companies. Environmental advocates released a video today that they describe as evidence of attempts by Chevron to skirt Ecuadoran law and cover up contamination of the Amazon. The footage…appears to show workers associated with Chevron looking for clean, uncontaminated soil but instead finding samples tainted with crude oil. The work appears to take place in an area of the jungle that has been the focus of a lawsuit between Chevron and local residents, who claim that the company is responsible for oil spills that have damaged their health and the environment.  Representatives from Amazon Watch said that they were mailed 47 DVDs of internal Chevron videos in April 2011…Steven Donziger, the lawyer representing the Ecuadoran residents, and Amazon Watch, which has advocated on behalf of them, say that Chevron conducted the inspections shown on the video in anticipation of a visit to the area by Ecuadoran court officials — a practice that they argue violated the law while illustrating the extraordinary lengths the company has gone to cover-up its toxic legacy.  Chevron denies those claims and points to a recent US court ruling against Donziger…Chevron public affairs officer Morgan Crinklaw...[said]…that there was nothing improper in the company's soil sampling work prior to the Ecuadoran court inspection...