hLpb5

their work to "clean up the language so it [would] sound[] more like [Cabrera] and less like a
comment."
168. The RICO Defendants accomplished their ruse in part by asking Powers, the
same Stratus contractor who ghostwrote portions of Cabrera's initial report (see paragraph 151,
supra), to respond to questions that had been raised in connection with the Cabrera Report.
Defendant Maest provided Powers the questions to be answered-questions that were the very
same ones posed by the Lago Agrio Plaintiffs in their September 2008 filing. Powers then
supplied Maest with the answers that are the same as those that are included in Cabrera's
November 2008 report.
169. In addition, the RICO Defendants and their co-conspirators incorporated into
Cabrera's response a second report written by Richard Clapp, another one of their hired
consultants. Just as the RICO Defendants and their co-conspirators had been concerned that
Hinton or Clapp himself would inadvertently disclose the fact that Clapp's first report had been
incorporated "as is" in the form of an annex to the Cabrera Report, they likewise became
concerned that the use of Clapp's second report in Cabrera's response would accidentally be
made public. Beltman warned Donziger, "I don't think we should hand out either [report] as
Clapp's, thereby distributing proof."
170. Beyond the misrepresentations concerning Cabrera's independence and the
authorship of "his" report, the Cabrera Report-without which the RICO Defendants cannot
demonstrate liability or damages-suffers from substantial flaws and fundamental problems.
Determined to "jack up" the damages estimate to $27 billion, the conspirators, among other
egregious defects, attributed all alleged environmental impact from oil operations in the former
consortium area to TexPet and none to Petroecuador, the sole owner of operations in the former
consortium area for the past nearly 20 years and the one responsible for well over 1,400 oil spills
during that time. The report includes millions of dollars of damages for remediation of disposal
pits that do not exist and are, in fact, shadows and other dark objects on aerial photographs. In
addition, the report relies on U.S.-derived cost baselines, standards, and methodologies which do
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