Amazon Watch supports the Ecuadorian plaintiffs by publishing a press kit alleging that Chevron ( corporate successor to Texaco ) should be held accountable for the dumping of of toxic waste water into a region of Ecuador 's Amazon rainforest inhabited by more than 30,000 people – purported to be one of the largest oil related contaminations ever , far exceeding that of the Exxon Valdez disaster . A 2011 decision in Ecuador ordered Chevron to pay $ 9.5 billion . Ecuador 's Supreme Court in 2013 affirmed the trial court judgment in a 222-page decision that documented the extensive and life-threatening levels of oil pollution at dozens of former Chevron well sites in the jungle . In all , eight appellate judges in Ecuador reviewed the evidence against Chevron and affirmed the judgment as well as dismissing Chevron 's allegation of fraud . When Chevron refused to comply with the $ 9.5 billion judgment against it for contamination in the Lago Agrio oil field , the plaintiffs ' lead attorney , Steven R. Donziger , attempted to collect the judgment in Brazil , Argentina , and Canada . Chevron then filed suit in the United States , and relying on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ( RICO Act ) , alleged that plaintiffs ' attorneys in the Lago Agrio litigation had engaged in extortion and fraud by paying almost US$ 300,000 in bribes to obtain the 2011 court verdict in Ecuador . On 4 Mar 2014 , Judge Lewis A. Kaplan concluded that " the course of justice was perverted " and enjoined Donziger from instituting any enforcement proceedings in the United States . Donziger has appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals , Second Circuit
Exxon Valdez disaster
Exxon Valdez oil spill
Amazon Watch