Litigator Funder Who Helped Underwrite Ecuador Case Settles with Chevron
Chevron Corp.'s lawyers have picked off another target in their campaign against those involved in a lawsuit accusing the oil giant of damaging the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. On Monday, a key financial supporter of the environmental litigation, Gibraltar-based billionaire James Russell DeLeon, renounced his association with the case. Chevron settled tort claims against DeLeon in Gibraltar over his funding of an Ecuadorean lawsuit…The deal with DeLeon comes almost a year after U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan…concluded that Steven Donziger, the lawyer who led the environmental suit against Chevron…, secured the massive judgment through fraud and racketeering…Under the settlement announced Monday, DeLeon…agreed to give up his seven percent stake in the $9.5 billion judgment. He also disassociated himself from the litigation and Donziger.