Law360, New York (July 26, 2021, 10:54 AM EDT) –Steven Donziger, a disbarred human rights lawyer accused of fraudulently obtaining a $9.5 billion pollution judgment against Chevron Corp. in Ecuador, was convicted of criminal contempt by a Manhattan federal judge Monday for disobeying court orders in the oil giant’s civil case against him.
U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska convicted Donziger on all six counts in a lengthy opinion, finding he flouted court orders directing him to hand over his devices for inspection in a fraud suit brought by Chevron. The outcome, seen as pre-ordained by Donziger and his legal team, caps off a highly unusual case stemming from his decades-long battle with Chevron over oil pollution in the Ecuadorean Amazon.
In her nearly 250-page opinion, Judge Preska said the case is “wholly unconcerned” with the debate over Chevron’s liability for the pollution. At stake instead was the “fundamental principle that a party to a legal action must abide by court orders or risk criminal sanctions, no matter how fervently he believes in the righteousness of his cause or how much he detests his adversary,” she wrote.
Judge Preska rejected a host of arguments advanced by Donziger, who has insisted throughout the two-year case that the court is biased against him and carrying out a vendetta on Chevron’s behalf. At each turn, she returned the case to what she said was its bare essence: Donziger “repeatedly and willfully defying” U.S. District Judge Lewis L. Kaplan’s orders in Chevron’s civil suit.
“It’s time to pay the piper,” Judge Preska said.
Judge Preska did not set a sentencing date. Donziger, deemed a flight risk, has been under home confinement in Manhattan for nearly two years, which his attorneys say far outstrips any sentence he could face. An attorney for Donziger, Martin Garbus of Offit Kurman, vowed to appeal.
“The decision will be reversed,” Garbus told Law360 in an email Monday. “The judge admits this prosecution and judgement is unprecedented. She is criminalizing civil conduct.”
In a largely unprecedented arrangement, the government’s contempt case was tried not by prosecutors but by a private attorney, who was appointed by the court after the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to bring charges drawn up by Judge Kaplan.
Donziger has characterized the case as a private prosecution engineered by Chevron in retaliation for the Ecuador settlement, which he insists was legitimate despite multiple court rulings to the contrary. He has accused the judges and special prosecutor of bias, referring to them as “Chevron partisans.”
At trial, Donziger’s lawyers didn’t dispute that he disobeyed court orders, arguing that he willingly entered civil contempt as a means to contest them. His team also claimed that Judge Kaplan “greenlighted” Chevron’s “massive campaign of intrusive discovery” after ruling in 2014 that Donziger obtained the Ecuador judgment through fraud, a decision later affirmed by the Second Circuit.
Special prosecutor Rita Glavin countered that Donziger failed to properly contest the orders by appealing them to the Second Circuit. She alleged Donziger “intentionally and repeatedly disobeyed court order after court order after court order.”
Donziger has seized upon Glavin’s background as evidence that he didn’t get a fair trial, referring to the high-power New York City attorney as the “Chevron prosecutor” in his court filings. Glavin’s firm at the time of her appointment, Seward & Kissel LLP, had previously done legal work for Chevron, though Glavin said she never represented the company. She is now a solo practitioner.
“This case has always been about one thing: the rule of law,” Glavin said Monday. “The evidence was unequivocal that Mr. Donziger deliberately disobeyed court order, after court order, after court order simply because he disagreed with them. Those orders were in full force and effect, and Donziger did not seek appellate relief from compliance with those orders.”
Donziger, convinced he could never get a fair trial, has laid extensive ground for appeal throughout the case, repeatedly raising objections to Judge Preska’s orders. In his latest filings, he has indicated he will attack Glavin’s appointment as unconstitutional.
Donziger is represented by Ron Kuby, Rhiya Trivedi and Martin Garbus.
The prosecution is represented by Rita Glavin and Sareen Armani of Glavin PLLC and Brian Maloney of Seward & Kissel LLP.
The case is U.S. v. Donziger, case number 1:19-cr-00561, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
— By Jack Queen. Additional reporting by Pete Brush. Editing by Alyssa Miller.
Update: This story has been updated with more details from the opinion and with comments from Glavin and counsel for Donziger.
Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify the timing of Seward & Kissel’s work for Chevron.
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