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• Ecuador: INTERPOL Red Notices in the context of country-to-country disagreements, Part 2

  Our last post addressed how INTERPOL notices can be reissued using the case of Luis Guaman as an example.  Mr. Guaman’s Case: Legal Conflict Between Jurisdictions In Mr. Guaman’s case, after he fled to Ecuador, the U.S. obtained a Red Notice and requested his extradition to New York, where he is wanted for the murders...

• New York Hepatitis A Outbreak linked to Blood Clams

  An outbreak of hepatitis A has spurred the FDA to issue a public alert about fresh-frozen blood clams imported from Ecuador and sold under the La Serranita brand. The outbreak is under investigation by the New York State Department of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The first illness related to the clams...

• Jambato, the Harlequin Toad, the Plaintiff

  Once again, frogs and toads are making headlines defending their constitutional rights. In a successful Rights of Nature (RoN) case in Ecuador, the Jambato (Atelopus ignescens) – a toad with an orange belly and black back – has now stopped an infrastructure project in Angamarca. RoN cases are often told as David vs. Goliath stories:...

• Ecuador criticized for freezing Indigenous and environmental group bank accounts

  The Ecuadorian government’s financial crimes agency froze the bank accounts of several Indigenous and environmental groups, using secret intelligence information in an apparent effort to silence protests, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, commented that the measures in question constitute a misuse of anti-money laundering mechanisms, which...

• Individual Pleads Guilty In Connection With Prior FCPA Enforcement Actions Involving Ecuador

  This prior post discussed the many FCPA (and related) enforcement actions concerning Ecuador’s Seguros Sucre S.A. (“Seguros Sucre”), an alleged state-owned insurance company and “instrumentality” of the Ecuadorian government. Among the enforcement actions were criminal charges announced by the DOJ in 2022 against Esteban Eduardo Merlo Hidalgo, Christian Patricio Pintado Garcia, and Luis Lenin Maldonado Matute....

• U.K. Announces Enforcement Action Involving Insurance Sector In Ecuador

  As detailed below, in the past approximate five years, there have been several FCPA enforcement actions against companies and individuals involved in the insurance sector in Ecuador. Tysers Insurance Brokers Limited and H.W. Wood Limited (2023) As highlighted in this prior post, the DOJ alleged that “Tysers and H.W. Wood were engaged in a conspiracy the...

• FDA Update on Lead Poisoning in Children due to Applesauce

  “No safe level of lead in children’s blood has been identified. CDC does not use the term “elevated blood lead levels” when recommending what actions to take based on a child’s blood lead level (BLL).” CDC FDA’s onsite inspection of the Austrofoods facility in Ecuador has ended. However, the FDA investigation of the elevated lead levels in...

• DHS Announces Family Reunification Parole Process for Ecuador

  The U.S. Department of Homeland security announced yesterday the implementation of a family reunification program for Ecuador, allowing U.S.-based Ecuadorians to sponsor their immediate family members abroad to legally immigrate to the United States.  Family reunification parole (FRP), as the program is formally known, allows beneficiaries to enter the United States and apply for work...

• FDA Signs Regulatory Partnership Arrangement with Ecuador Covering Shrimp Imports
• China-Ecuador Bilateral Treaty on Judicial Assistance in Criminal Matters Ratified

  On 30 Oct. 2022, China’s legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, ratified the “Treaty between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Ecuador on Judicial Assistance in Criminal Matters” (中华人民共和国和厄瓜多尔共和国关于刑事司法协助的条约), which was signed by representatives of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing on 12 Dec. 2018.     Cover...

Featured documents

• Lessons from Chevron: Symposium Videos

  For those who were unable to attend the “Lessons from Chevron” symposium at Stanford Law School in February, the conference website now has links to videotapes of the panels. Some of the panels focused directly on the Chevron-Ecuador environmental litigation itself, while others used that...

• Ecuador criticized for freezing Indigenous and environmental group bank accounts

  The Ecuadorian government’s financial crimes agency froze the bank accounts of several Indigenous and environmental groups, using secret intelligence information in an apparent effort to silence protests, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights ...

• Wall Street Journal on the Chevron Ecuador Case

  The Wall Street Journal editorial page comments on the Chevron Ecuador case and the current trial in which Chevron is alleging RICO violations by a plaintiff attorney involved in the Ecuador case....

• Jambato, the Harlequin Toad, the Plaintiff

  Once again, frogs and toads are making headlines defending their constitutional rights. In a successful Rights of Nature (RoN) case in Ecuador, the Jambato (Atelopus ignescens) – a toad with an orange belly and black back – has now stopped an infrastructure project in Angamarca. RoN cases are often ...

• Ecuador high court affirms but cuts Chevron judgment

  As the trial continues to unfold in New York in Chevron’s RICO lawsuit against plaintiffs’ lawyer Stephen Donziger — amid accusations of judicial bribes, ghostwritten opinions, and sex scandals — it is worth noting what happened in Ecuador this week. On Tuesday, Ecuador’s high court, the National...

• New York Hepatitis A Outbreak linked to Blood Clams

  An outbreak of hepatitis A has spurred the FDA to issue a public alert about fresh-frozen blood clams imported from Ecuador and sold under the La Serranita brand. The outbreak is under investigation by the New York State Department of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The first...

• Cross Border Enforcement of Judgments – Ontario Thinking Potentially Broadly

  The Chevron/Ecuador wars continue to rage, including a judgment enforcement effort in Ontario, Canada. The latter effort resulted in a ruling indicating Canada’s courts may be open to judgment enforcement based on seizing a parent corporation’s shares in a subsidiary corporation that was not...

• Ecuador: INTERPOL Red Notices in the context of country-to-country disagreements, Part 2

  Our last post addressed how INTERPOL notices can be reissued using the case of Luis Guaman as an example.  Mr. Guaman’s Case: Legal Conflict Between Jurisdictions In Mr. Guaman’s case, after he fled to Ecuador, the U.S. obtained a Red Notice and requested his extradition to New York, where he is...

• SDNY Finds Ecuador Judgment Unenforceable in Chevron Environmental Litigation

  Judge Lewis Kaplan entered judgment today in favor of Chevron in the long-running dispute concerning environmental liability for oil pollution in the Oriente region of Ecuador. The court, after a bench trial, found that plaintiffs’ attorney Steven Donziger and his team engaged in fraud and...

• Kudos for “Crude Awakening: Chevron in Ecuador” – Michael Goldhaber’s Insights into the Chevron Trial, in a New Book

  The saga involving Chevron/Ecuador oil drilling and litigation is a fascinating and factually intense story of mass tort litigation at its most extreme. The overall events and recent trial have it all – rampant oil production, oil in the ground in places and amounts that should not exist, arguments ...