Kerry Kennedy surveying oil damage in Ecuador. (AP)
Professional do-gooder Kerry Kennedy — Gov. Cuomo’s ex-wife and the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy — has called the oil-drilled rain forests of Ecuador “the biggest corporate environmental disaster on the face of the Earth, in the history of the world.”
The human-rights activist penned opinion pieces and lobbied officials to voice her outrage at the damage oil companies have caused to the town of Lago Agrio, where 1,700 square miles of rain forest have been destroyed and people sickened.
What Kennedy has never mentioned during her campaign is that she is being paid handsomely for her seemingly selfless advocacy.
Kennedy, 52, was secretly hired as a “public-relations consultant” by the lawyer representing the Ecuadoreans in an $18 billion lawsuit against Chevron, according to court documents.
Cashing in on her respected family name and legacy, Kennedy raked in tens of thousands of dollars and was given a 0.25 percent stake — worth as much as $40 million — if the $18 billion judgment handed down by an Ecuadorean judge is ultimately upheld. (Chevron has not yet paid pending its countersuit in Manhattan federal court.)
Kennedy was paid a flat $50,000 by lead attorney Steven Donziger on Feb. 22, 2010, bank statements made public in the case show.
She was set to pull down an additional $10,000 per month, according to a September 2010 draft budget by the law firm. And she was to get another $40,000 in expenses in June 2010, according to an invoice from Donziger.
But being a hired shill didn’t stop Kennedy from presenting herself as a crusader with only a personal interest and familial duty to Ecuador’s indigenous masses.
In a CNN appearance on Oct. 22, 2009, and in a column for the Huffington Post on Nov. 4, 2009, she opined about her trip to the South American nation.
“Nothing could prepare me for the horror I witnessed,” she wrote.
In neither instance was it mentioned that she was hired by the law firm or has a financial stake in the case.
The legal quagmire dates back to 1993, when 30,000 villagers sued Texaco for dumping crude oil and emitting toxins into the watershed and air while drilling 325 wells.
Chevron bought Texaco in 2001 and completed a $40 million cleanup, approved by the Ecuadorean government.
In an August 2009 e-mail, Donziger wrote, “Kerry Kennedy . . . is coming to Ecuador and wants to help us along with Orin Kramer, major pension fund guy and Dem fundraiser in NY. This could give us a real boost . . . Will cost money, but not much.”
Donziger would make hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees if he wins, Chevron claims in its countersuit.
Kennedy, who is paid $225,239 a year as president of the RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights and is the mother of Cuomo’s three daughters, was also courted for her political connections.
In a March 2010 e-mail to Donziger, a colleague writes about using Kennedy to persuade state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to speak out against Chevron. (The state pension fund has $780 million invested in Chevron stock.) In May 2011, DiNapoli called on Chevron to settle the suit.
Kennedy’s failure to disclose the payments she received for her advocacy raises ethical questions, legal experts said.
“If the lawyers are actively involved in counseling her in what to say and haven’t urged her to come clean, that would violate the rule against deception,” Columbia University law professor William Simon said.
Said a Chevron spokesman, “This is exactly the type of documented misconduct” the plaintiffs have engaged in before.
Kennedy did not return calls and e-mails seeking comment. Her role was defended by Pablo Fajardo, the lead Ecuadorean lawyer for the indigenous groups.
“Kerry Kennedy is a fierce human-rights advocate and friend of thousands of Ecuadoreans who have been victimized by Chevron’s horrific contamination,” he said. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Kerry.”
Excerpts of internal emails between lawyers and consultants for the Ecuadorean villagers battling Chevron:
8/20/2009: “Kerry Kennedy, daughter of RFK and human rights lawyer, is coming to Ecuador . . . This could give us a real boost . . . Will cost money, but not much.”
3/30/2010: “So this would be a great time to share the [investor] statement with Kerry Kennedy and have her call [state Comptroller Thomas] DiNapoli to urge him to approve it. She’s been a big supporter of him.”