Chevron Executive Ricardo Reis Veiga is under investigation in Ecuador on fraud charges for his role in a botched environmental clean-up, and is scheduled to be put under oath today by Ecuador’s government as part of a multi-billon dollar civil case in U.S. federal court to determine who pays for what experts believe is the world’s worst oil-related contamination. Vice President Reis Veiga will be questioned about his role in covering up an environmental disaster 30 times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill.
The U.S. the Securities and Exchange Commission is probing whether the company failed to disclose its Ecuador liability, estimated at $6 billion, to shareholders.
Representatives of 30,000 rainforest residents are releasing a detailed 17-page report today outlining his possibly illegal behavior in Ecuador’s rainforest. In a civil trial in Ecuador brought by the residents, Chevron has admitted that it dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic waste directly into Ecuador’s Amazon region from 1964 to 1992. At the same time in the U.S., the company was treating its toxic waste and re-injecting it into deep wells.
Ecuador’s residents claim Chevron’s practices and subsequent cover-up have forced two indigenous groups to the brink of extinction and caused thousands to suffer from cancers and other oil-related health problems.
Chevron is currently embroiled in two related multi-billion dollar litigations over the Ecuador problem. The case involving Reis Veiga’s sworn testimony is part of a dispute in U.S. federal court in New York between Chevron and Ecuador’s government over who should bear the liability for the contamination. That is distinct from the Ecuador case, which is a trial to determine the scope of a clean-up and how much it would cost.
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