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The Osage want you to know their story doesn’t end with
Killers of the Flower Moon

This week, director Martin Scorsese releases his film Killers of the Flower Moon: the true story of the mass murder of Osage Native Americans and the plot to steal the tribe’s oil wealth. But the story doesn’t end when the credits roll. For the past 27 years, I have been reporting on what happened afterwards. My documentary Long Knife – produced by George DiCaprio – recounts… READ MORE

Steven Donziger: A corporate criminal prosecution, orchestrated by Chevron

On October 1, 2021, human rights lawyer, Steven Donziger, was given a 6 month sentence — punishment for winning a $9 billion judgment against Chevron for poisoning the Amazon. On the day of his sentencing, I spoke extensively with Donziger about his extraordinary case. When he began his sentence at the federal prison in Danbury, CT, we began posting clips from this interview each week to keep his plight in the public eye. As Donziger approaches the end … READ MORE

Chevron: A Smoking Gun and a Cover Up

In 2011, an Ecuadorian court ordered Chevron to pay $9.5 billion for the poisoning of indigenous lands. The courts found that Chevron’s Texaco operation had illegally dumped 16 billion gallons of deadly oil waste.

The smoking gun? This confidential document, in which the Chairman of Chevron Oil’s Texaco division personally orders that incriminating evidence of oil sludge dumping in Ecuador be “removed…and destroyed.” … READ MORE

Steven Donziger sentenced to six months in prison

[Oct 1, 2021: New York] Human rights lawyer Steven Donziger was sentenced to six months in prison today for contempt of court. For the first time in US history in such a case, he was prosecuted not by the US Justice Department, but by a private attorney who worked for Chevron. He received the maximum sentence for… READ MORE

Fact Injection: Donziger v. Chevron

This is the first time in history that a private corporation has criminally prosecuted a U.S. citizen. In an unprecedented move, a judge asked Chevron’s lawyers to prosecute Donziger for criminal contempt — after the Department of Justice had refused to do so. No jury would convict Donziger, so the judge refused him a jury trial and found him guilty. On October 1 this judge is going to sentence Donziger. He could get six months in jail—on top of the two years he’s already served under house arrest—so I want you to… READ MORE

The Cheese Smelled Funny So We Threw It in the Jungle
Vultures' Picnic: Chapter 5

I ended up out here in the rain forest half by accident. I had some confidential papers from the World Bank I intended to give to Ecuador’s President. But, going through the documents, it was clear that there was no way to understand Ecuador, which had just rejoined OPEC, without first following the oil. And following the oil meant going into the oil fields in the jungle and grilling the Natives about their claims of illnesses and deaths … READ MORE