Amazon Defense Coalition: American Who Shot Secret Videos for Chevron in Ecuador Is Convicted Drug Trafficker

Investigation Reveals Life of Deception, No Connection to Oil Remediation & No
Stable Employment

WASHINGTON--(Business Wire)--
Wayne Hansen, the American businessman who helped make the secret videos being
used by Chevron in an attempt to taint an environmental trial where the company
faces a $27 billion liability, is a convicted felon who was charged with
conspiring to import more than 275,000 pounds of marijuana from Colombia to the
United States, according to a search of public records.

Chevron, in trying to explain the secret videos, has described Hansen as an
"American businessman" motivated by civic duty to expose corruption in Ecuador
by implicating the judge overseeing the environmental trial in a bribe related
to a clean-up contract that Hansen claimed to be trying to secure for his
company. Hansen, along with Ecuadorian Diego Borja, a Chevron contractor, shot
the videos from micro-cameras in a watch and a pen and turned them over to
Chevron, according to the company.

Since then, numerous discrepancies have emerged in Chevron`s account that have
been documented by the Amazon Defense Coalition - including the company`s recent
admission that Borja has received substantial payments from Chevron to relocate
to the United States and additional payments to cover his living expenses, and
that the fees for criminal defense attorneys representing both men are being
paid by Chevron. (See
http://chevrontoxico.com/news-and-multimedia/chevrons-corruption.html).

Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case retained an investigator to gather
information on Borja and Hansen to determine whether Chevron`s claim they are
civic-minded is consistent with their known character, said Steven Donziger, an
American legal advisor to dozens of Amazonian communities suing the oil giant
for dumping billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon.

Hansen is seen on the tapes trying to bribe a man purporting to be an Ecuadorian
government official for a remediation contract, apparently in violation of the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (a U.S. law which prohibits American persons and
companies from bribing foreign officials). It turns out the man, Patricio
Garcia, is a car salesman and has no ties to the government, according to
reports from Dow Jones and Bloomberg.

The investigation of Hansen, conducted by San Francisco-area investigator and
attorney Grant Fine, is ongoing. Details about the investigation can be found at
www.chevrontoxico.com. Thus far, the investigative report has revealed the
following:

* In 1986, Hansen pled guilty in U.S. federal court for his role in a conspiracy
to import 275,000 pounds of marijuana - an amount that today would have a street
value of $275 million, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. He was
sentenced to serve two years and eights months in prison.
* Hansen has no known ties to any environmental remediation company in the U.S.
and is unknown in the American remediation industry, despite telling Ecuadorian
officials he was "highly qualified" to engage in environmental remediation.
Hansen holds no engineering license and never finished college.
* Ecuadorian immigration records reveal Hansen was in Ecuador continuously this
year from April 18 to June 16 - dates that coincide with three of the four
videotaped meetings. It is unclear who paid his expenses or what work he was
doing other than planning and executing the videotaping scheme with Borja.
* Several witnesses who know Hansen describe him as a dishonest, unscrupulous
man. Witnesses referred to him as a "liar," a "con man," a "crook," and a
"hustler." He does not appear to have stable employment, and he has transferred
his primary assets to his wife.
* Hansen has a pattern of flouting the law. The city of Bakersfield, CA recently
condemned his home when he repeatedly did renovations without proper permits. He
has been sued recently for a vicious attack by his pit bull and for unlawfully
occupying another person`s house. The plaintiffs in each case allege that Hansen
lied in the course of defending himself. In one case, the court ordered that his
wife`s wages be garnished to satisfy a judgment against Hansen.
* Hansen has associated himself in business with numerous disreputable
individuals. One, Leslie Dutcher, is also a convicted felon whom Hansen met
while incarcerated in federal prison. Another appears to be involved in setting
up religious charities to solicit donations, which he then appropriates for
personal use.
* In mid-July of this year, while Chevron was in possession of the videotapes
but had not disclosed that fact, Hansen called the communications spokesperson
for the Amazon Defense Coalition in an apparent effort to entrap her in improper
activity. During the call, made from Hansen`s cell phone number in the United
States, he claimed to have taken a file from the office of the judge presiding
over the environmental trial in Ecuador and was looking for information on how
to return it.

The Fine investigation has uncovered more disturbing information about both
Hansen and Borja that will be divulged when it can be confirmed. In the
meantime, the current report is being handed over to the U.S. Department of
Justice and Ecuador`s Solicitor General, who is conducting a separate
investigation.

Donziger also said the report would be sent to Chevron`s Board of Directors for
review. In the past, representatives of the plaintiffs have criticized Chevron`s
Board for not independently vetting management`s handling of the Ecuador
liability, which implicates roughly 20% of the company`s market value.

"This investigation makes clear that the real Wayne Hanson bears no resemblance
to the fictitious civic-minded character created by Chevron to explain how it
suddenly came into innocent possession of the videos," said Donziger.

"The reality is far more complicated and requires a complete investigation by
the U.S. Department of Justice of Hansen`s relationship to Chevron`s lawyers in
both Ecuador and the United States," he added.

The lawsuit accuses Texaco (now Chevron) of dumping more than 18 billion gallons
of oil and toxic water into the Ecuadorian rainforest when it operated an oil
concession from 1964 to 1990. Chevron maintains that Texaco in the mid 1990s
cleaned a small number of its 356 wells sites in exchange for a liability
release from Ecuador`s government, but the release does not cover the private
claims of the type being litigated in the lawsuit, said Donziger.

Donziger also said evidence adduced in the trial show illegal and lethal levels
of toxins at the oil sites Texaco claimed it had remediated, suggesting the
clean-up was at best ineffective and at worst a fraud.

About the Amazon Defense Coalition

The Amazon Defense Coalition represents dozens of rainforest communities and
five indigenous groups that inhabit Ecuador`s Northern Amazon region. The
mission of the Coalition is to protect the environment and secure social justice
through grass roots organizing, political advocacy, and litigation. Two of its
leaders, Luis Yanza and Pablo Fajardo, are the 2008 winners of the prestigious
Goldman Environmental Prize.

Editor`s Note: The investigative report referenced in the press release can be
found at www.chevrontoxico.com

Amazon Defense Coalition
Karen Hinton, 703-798-3109
karen@hintoncommunications.com

Copyright Business Wire 2009