U.S. oil company Chevron was sentenced this past Monday, February 14, by a judge in Ecuador, to pay eight billion dollars for environmental damage caused by Texaco – a company they bought in 2001 – between 1964 and 1990, according to the ruling. Lawyers for the company said they would speak in more detail about this sentence after reviewing the ruling.
The spokesman for the company in Latin America, James Craig , confirmed that a “ruling and conviction had been issued in the trials for environmental damage brought against the company related to the operations of Texaco Petroleum Company ” from 1964 to 1990. As the owner of Texaco, Chevron is liable to pay for the damages caused by Texaco in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
“We will appeal” , said the spokesman of the company in New York . In a statement, the company has also called the decision “illegitimate and unenforceable” , calling it the result of “fraud and totally contrary to legitimate scientific evidence” .
This sentence exceeds the record fine given out for the ExxonMobil oil spill in Alaska in 1989, which was originally five billion dollars, before being reduced to 500 million.