State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has become one of the most vocal critics of Chevron Corp. — and the recipient of thousands of dollars in campaign cash from the oil company’s biggest foe — since taking office in 2007.
DiNapoli, the state’s top finance officer, has issued news releases and written op-eds against Chevron.
And just last month, as head of the state’s $150 billion pension fund, he led an unsuccessful effort to force a restructuring of management at Chevron, a firm in which New York’s pensioners are heavily invested.
His positions mirror those of a group suing Chevron in a controversial international lawsuit that could cost the company billions.
Meanwhile, the group behind that 20-year-old lawsuit has handed his campaign a total of at least $48,000.
DiNapoli insists there’s no quid pro quo between his actions and his donors.
The comptroller’s “interest in the case is directly attributable to the potential impact of a negative legal outcome that would have an economic impact on the [pension] fund,” his spokesman, Eric Sumberg, told The Post.
Sumberg said the state Comptroller’s Office staked out its anti-Chevron position years before DiNapoli took over in February 2007 from scandal-scarred Alan Hevesi.
The controversial lawsuit pits Chevron against a group in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, that claims years of oil drilling left them with serious health and environmental problems.
Courts in Ecuador have ordered Chevron to pay $18 billion for “intentional contamination” of the jungle.
Chevron has contested the judgment and is countersuing.
Among the gusher of records in the case is a stunning 2007 e-mail — publicly revealed here for the first time by The Post — from New York lawyer Steve Donziger, the leader of the plaintiffs’ case.
Donziger wrote that the comptroller would be a good target for lobbying because “he is political, meaning, if we show him how he can look good going after chevron, he might be even more likely to help us.”
On Jan. 8, 2009, Donziger sent another, even more blunt e-mail about DiNapoli to an associate.
“We are delivering a bunch of checks to DiNapoli today,” the lawyer wrote, adding these instructions:
“Go to a closet and get out that plastic box w all my checks in it. Find my personal check book (the little one) and write a check to DiNapoli 2010 and sign my name. However, call me before u do this — I am worried this might not be a great idea.”
A day after that e-mail was sent, DiNapoli recorded a $2,000 donation from Donziger.
Donziger did not respond to messages from The Post.