Felon Involved In Clandestine Videos In Ecuador

FRANK BAJAK

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — 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.

Chevron says it had no prior knowledge of the meetings and "did not initiate or participate" in them. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they believe Chevron did know, and are asking U.S. prosecutors to investigate possible violations of laws including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The U.S. Justice Department won't say whether it is investigating.

Hansen and Diego Borja, an Ecuadorean man who has done technical contract work for Chevron, made the videotapes of the judge and another man who Borja says he understood to be tied to Ecuador's ruling party, and who offered them a contract to clean up a contaminated site if they paid $3 million.