Gustavo Coronel: Plaintiffs expert
credibility in zero in Chevron's trial
The Lago Agrio Trial: Chevron demolishes credibility of the Court “Expert” Richard Stalin Cabrera
A letter recently sent (July 14, 2010) by the legal representatives of Chevron to Ecuadorian Attorney General Washington Pesantez Muñoz, practically demolishes the credibility of the court “expert. Richard Stalin Cabrera, when it shows that most of his report was written by consultants retained by the plaintiffs. We had already noticed that some components of Cabrera's report seemed to be extracted from the work of consultants such as Stratus Consuling or the Spanish expert Mr. Emilio Beristain.
Now Chevron goes farther when it claims that cabrera's report was originally written in English and later translated into Spanish. The Chevron letter reads: ‘
“ Stratus Consulting LLC (“Stratus”), a U.S.-based environmental consulting company,
has worked for plaintiffs for many years. Despite initial denials, mounting evidence shows that Stratus personnel and contractors had extensive dealings with Mr. Cabrera and are the true authors of much of the Cabrera Report. A Stratus contractor produced in a United States federal court action an electronic database used by the plaintiffs' consultants. Forensic analysis has shown that substantial portions of the same database were incorporated into the Cabrera Report virtually verbatim, without attribution or disclosure of the source
Therefore, they add:
“ The information set forth in this letter and in the attachments hereto shows that the
Cabrera Report is a fraud and that the plaintiffs' representatives and Mr. Cabrera worked in concert to perpetrate that fraud. Both Mr. Cabrera and the plaintiffs' representatives have made repeated misrepresentations to conceal their collusion, which violated Mr. Cabrera's obligations of transparency and impartiality. This fraud has been perpetrated as part of plaintiffs' efforts to obtain an unfounded judgment against Chevron in Lago Agrio, and to injure Chevron through their public-relations and lobbying campaigns. As such, the evidence has serious implications for the integrity of the Lago Agrio proceedings and for the possible criminal liability of Mr. Cabrera and the plaintiffs' representative ”.
This letter seems to apply a “coup de grace”to the pretensions of the plaintiffs. We are not surprised to see this development because we had already noticed the abnormal links between Cabrera and the plaintiffs. Correa's government should rectify their bias against the oil company and keep a dignified silence.
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Gustavo Coronel is a 28 years oil industry veteran, a member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), author of several books. At the present Coronel is Petroleumworld associate editor and advisor on the opinion and editorial content of the site. All his articles can be read in Gustavo's blog. Las Armas de Coronel . Mr. Fyfe's paper has been quoted with his authorization. Petroleumworld does not necessarily share these views.
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Roubini Global Economics, June 09, 2010. Petroleumworld reprint this article in the interest of our readers.
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Petroleumworld News 07/19/2010
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