Felon Involved in Clandestine Videos of Ecuador Judge in Chevron Case

Felon Involved in Clandestine Videos of Ecuador Judge in Chevron Case
Frank Bajak and Jeanneth Valdivieso
The Associated Press
October 29, 2009

One of two men who made clandestine video recordings allegedly showing government bias and kickback-soliciting in a $27 billion oil contamination lawsuit is a convicted felon with a history of legal troubles, The Associated Press has learned.

An AP investigation also has found no evidence that Wayne Douglas Hansen worked in his professed field of environmental remediation.

Court records show that Hansen, 62, pleaded guilty to charges of facilitating the importation of marijuana in a 1987 case in Brownsville, Texas. A co-defendant said that Hansen was in charge of buying a DC-7 that prosecutors alleged would be used to fly 275,000 pounds (124,740 kilos) of marijuana to the United States from Colombia.

Hansen, a U.S. citizen who served 19 months in federal prison in that case, also lost civil lawsuits charging him with unleashing two pitbulls on a neighbor and her golden retriever, and with tearing up the walls of another person's house with a jackhammer, according to California county court records and the plaintiffs.

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http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435029781&rss=newswire

Felon involved in clandestine videos in Ecuador
By FRANK BAJAK and JEANNETH VALDIVIESO
The Associated Press
Thursday, October 29, 2009; 4:18 PM

http://media3.washingtonpost.com.nyud.net:8090/wp-dyn/content/photo/2009/10/29/PH2009102903360.jpg

This late 1960's photo released by
the The National Personnel Records
Center in St. Louis shows Wayne
Hansen at the time of his induction
into the U.S. Army. (AP Photo/
National Personnel Records Center)

This late 1960's photo released by QUITO, Ecuador -- A man who made clandestine video recordings used to discredit Ecuador in a $27 billion oil contamination lawsuit is a convicted felon with a history of legal troubles, The Associated Press has learned.

An AP investigation also has found no evidence that Wayne Douglas Hansen ever worked in his professed field of environmental remediation.

Hansen was one of two men who used spy cameras in a watch and a pen to videotape a judge in the lawsuit against Chevron Corp. Chevron released the images in August, saying they prove it can't get a fair trial in Ecuador and that the lawsuit over contamination in the Amazon rain forest should be dismissed.

~snip~
In the videotapes, taken in May and June, Hansen is introduced as an American groundwater remediation executive with extensive international experience. In one of them, Borja says Hansen's company has "an exclusive franchise for Honeywell for water treatment plants." Honeywell International Inc. spokesman Jake Saylor called that untrue.

Hansen, in two brief interviews, told AP he had water-treatment projects in Mexico and Ecuador. But when a reporter questioned those claims, he hung up.

Chevron flew Borja and his wife to the United States in late June for their protection and committed to finding them "suitable employment," according to documents released by Chevron this week. But Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson said that the company "is not associated" with Hansen and has given him no money, though it has offered to pay for security and legal fees relating to the videotapes.

~snip~
The plaintiffs, who say they represent about 30,000 inhabitants of the Ecuadorean Amazon, claim a consortium operated by Texaco from 1972-1990 contaminated much of a Rhode Island-sized oil patch, causing elevated cancer rates. They are seeking damages for cleanup and to compensate for illnesses.

Chevron, based in San Ramon, California, bought Texaco in 2001. It says a 1998 agreement Texaco signed with Ecuador's government following a $40 million cleanup frees Chevron of liability. It calls the cancer claims unfounded.

Chevron says Ecuador should be investigating the alleged extortion scheme captured in the videotapes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/29/AR2009102903359.html

Chevron Employs Felon and Drug-Trafficker to Derail Trial to Escape Enviro Crimes

By Han Shan, AlterNet. Posted October 30, 2009.

It appears that American oil giant Chevron is employing methods -- and people -- that are as dirty as the toxic waste pits it left scattered across the rainforest floor
To defend itself in a major environmental lawsuit in Ecuador, it appears that American oil giant Chevron is employing methods -- and people -- that are as dirty as the toxic waste pits it left scattered across the rainforest floor.

In early September, I wrote here about a dramatic last-ditch attempt by Chevron to monkey-wrench legal proceedings in Ecuador over massive oil contamination in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Chevron is facing up to $27 billion dollars in damages to clean up what has become known as the 'Amazon Chernobyl,' where tens of thousands of indigenous people and campesinos suffer an epidemic of cancer, miscarriages, birth defects, and other ailments.

On August 31, just weeks before a final judgment had been expected in the case, Chevron posted on YouTube what at first appeared to be a 'smoking gun' spy video, which Chevron said showed the judge in the case ensnared in a bribery scandal.

Except, as I wrote before, it didn't:

The company instead revealed videos showing a former Chevron contractor named Diego Borja and an American businessman named Wayne Hansen, who appear to be trying fruitlessly to entrap the presiding Judge, Juan Nuñez. Borja and Hansen secretly shot the videos themselves using a spy-camera pen and watch they bought in a catalog. In the videos, Borja introduced Mr. Hansen as an executive of an American groundwater remediation company willing to provide a kickback for a government contract to clean up the oil contamination left behind by Texaco, now Chevron. The California-based oil giant claimed the videos showed obvious government bias, corruption and judicial misconduct and called for an annulment of the judge's rulings in the case.

But almost immediately, the entire supposed "corruption scandal" began unraveling.As The New York Times wrote:

The two mysterious businessmen, who used watches and pens implanted with bugging devices to make the recordings, have refused to explain their motivations for going to the furtive meetings in Quito and a jungle outpost to discuss a bribery plot. And now, with questions mounting, one of them has enlisted a lawyer who has represented Barry Bonds.

The article doesn't mention that Chevron agreed to pay for both Borja and Hansen's criminal defense lawyers, though it does explain that the company had paid Borja, its former contractor, "an undisclosed amount for moving and living expenses so he could safely move his family out of Ecuador."

And now for the latest bombshell. "American businessman" and "remediation expert" Wayne Hansen is neither. Rather, he is a convicted felon and drug trafficker, with a "litany of legal troubles," according to the Associated Press.

More:
http://www.alternet.org/action/143628/chevron_employs_felon_and_drug-trafficker_to_derail_trial_to_escape_enviro_crimes