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management time, reputational ... [h]arm, dealing with the board, looking bad, having your kids<br />

... in school, have friends who say, hey, what'd your daddy do in Ecuador? .... I think all of<br />

that factors into it in an af-extremely significant way, much more than th-the hard-core costs,<br />

... out-of-pocket expenses and stuff-I think that's where they're most vulnerable."<br />

221. The RICO Defendants rely on Amazon Watch to carry out many of the public<br />

attacks against Chevron, and the RICO Defendants closely monitor, frequently revise, and<br />

sometimes entirely ghostwrite, the press releases and letters that Amazon Watch issues. When<br />

an Amazon Watch representative complained to Donziger that Amazon Watch was "not here to<br />

simply rubber-stamp press releases," and dared to tell him that prior experience showed that<br />

Amazon Watch "needs to carefully fact-check your press releases in order to safeguard our own<br />

credibility," Donziger replied sharply. He stated that he and the other lawyers were "the final<br />

authority," and that, "We can be collaborators, but we are not equal partners." The issue that set<br />

off Donziger's tirade is particularly telling: Amazon Watch had wanted to provide Cabrera's<br />

educational credentials in a press release about him. Donziger's response: "The issue about<br />

Cabrera's qualifications is a good example. He doesn't have a doctorate. I don't want to<br />

highlight that. So I don't mention what degree he has in the press release. Obviously ifhe had a<br />

doctorate it would be in there, don't u think?" In response, the Amazon Watch representative<br />

called Donziger's tactic an "unsubtle and unnecessary obfuscation" and "[b ]ombast and<br />

hoodwink."<br />

222. By using Amazon Watch as their proxy, the RICO Defendants and their co-<br />

conspirators can also deliver their extortionate threats to Chevron using more direct language<br />

than they are willing to use themselves-at least publicly. In "turn[ing] up the heat on Chevron,"<br />

the RICO Defendants and their co-conspirators have made their extortionate demands explicit in<br />

direct communications with Chevron. For example, on December 17, 2009, Soltani wrote a<br />

letter "on behalf of Amazon Watch" to then-incoming Chief Executive Officer John Watson in<br />

which she cited the fraudulent $27 billion damages assessment from the Cabrera Report, and<br />

threatened, "Until Chevron takes meaningful steps to resolve this case, it will continue to play<br />

88

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