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would sample. Indeed, as Donziger has admitted, Fajardo was in "regular contact" with
Cabrera-unbeknownst to Chevron-while Cabrera was supposedly serving as the
"independent" court expert.
145. Back in the United States, preparations were well underway for drafting
Cabrera's Report. Just after the March meeting with Cabrera, David Chapman, a principal at
Stratus, emailed Donziger, proposing that "the way this would work best is that if Stratus did
much ofthe work, putting the pieces together and writing the report." Shortly thereafter, on
April 27, 2007, the conspirators assembled at Stratus's offices in Boulder, Colorado to discuss
how they were going to "jack this thing up to thirty billion," as Donziger had put it. Present at
the meeting from Stratus were President Joshua Lipton, David Chapman, Preston Sowell, and
Defendants Beltman and Maest. The conspirators ultimately went with Chapman's suggested
approach, permitting Stratus to take the lead on the drafting of the report. As Donziger later
admitted, Beltman, the Stratus project leader, had "a fair amount of discretion," including the
authority to eliminate sections of the report if Stratus could not complete them on time.
146. The participants in this meeting also discussed how they could leverage the
Cabrera Report, once it was filed in the Lago Agrio court, as a supposedly independent
endorsement oftheir position. Donziger talked up how important and far-reaching he thought
the report should be: "We also see this case as having a larger meaning .. " [W]e think that,
Uhm, this is the kind ofthing people will be interested in reading. You know, like this damages
report[-]academics, people in your field, other lawyers." Lipton responded, "we loved the
whole package." As a result, Stratus entered into a contract with Kohn Swift to provide technical
assistance, including the production of reports and support in discussions with the media, in
furtherance of the conspiracy. The initial contract for $125,000 was modified multiple times to
accommodate Stratus's increasing involvement and fees. Indeed, by the fall of2009, Stratus
received at least $1.1 million in payment for their role in the criminal scheme. Donziger also
offered Stratus a piece of the action, suggesting that it could obtain contracts to oversee the
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