Article
Chevron Witness Presents Fat Target
The star witness in Chevron Corp.'s mega tort counter trial has been Alberto Guerra, a former Ecuadorian judge now living in an unprecedented private witness protection program funded by Chevron. Chevron alleges that Guerra arranged for a group of Ecuadorian environmental plaintiffs and their lawyers to bribe an Ecuadoran judge in return for a bogus $19 billion judgment in February 2011. Chevron's opponents — now battling Chevron's fraud claims in federal court in New York — insist it's Guerra's story that's bogus. Guerra has testified that his former judicial colleague Judge Nicolas Zambrano was eager to preside over the pollution case against Chevron, aiming to milk it for all it was worth…The task of attacking Guerra's motives fell to Julio Gomez of Gomez LLC, who is defending the Ecuadorian litigants. Guerra presented a fat target in light of Chevron's admitted financial support for the former judge.