U.S. judge rules for Chevron in Ecuador environmental case

(Reuters) — An American lawyer used "corrupt means" to secure a multibillion-dollar pollution judgment against Chevron Corp. in Ecuador, a U.S. judge ruled Tuesday, handing the oil company a major victory following a six-week trial last year.

In a nearly 500-page decision, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in New York said he had found "clear and convincing evidence" that attorney Steven Donziger's legal team bribed an Ecuadorean judge to issue an $18 billion judgment in 2011 in favor of a group of villagers. They had claimed Texaco, later acquired by Chevron, contaminated an oil field in northeastern Ecuador between 1964 and 1992.

The decision bars Mr. Donziger and the villagers from enforcing the Ecuadorean ruling in the United States and freezes all proceeds from the judgment.

Chevron accused Mr. Donziger of fraud and said it cleaned up the site before handing it over to a state-controlled entity.

Mr. Donziger did not immediately comment on the decision.