Chevron Files Ethics Complaint Filed Against State Comptroller

Last Tuesday, Chevron filed a complaint against Comptroller Tom DiNapoli with the Joint Committee on Public Ethics (JCOPE), requesting an investigation of Comptroller Tom DiNapoli for violations of the Public Officers Law.

Chevron claims that the Comptroller pressured the company to settle environmental litigation in Ecuador in exchange for campaign contributions from supporters of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs.  The company’s complaint stems from litigation in Ecuador, and what the company says is “a scheme to extort a multi-billion-dollar payoff from Chevron in connection with a fraudulent litigation.”

In return, according to the complaint, the Comptroller gained $60,000 in campaign contributions and “other political benefits” for pressuring Chevron to settle the lawsuit.

He called the complaint a “baseless” attempt to intimidate him and said that “the allegations are without merit.”  He said that his call for Chevron to settle the Ecuador litigation “is about protecting shareholder value and fulfilling my fiduciary responsibility to the New York State Common Retirement Fund.”  DiNapoli is the Fund’s sole trustee.

As the complaint lacks a “smoking gun” – it does not offer any evidence of a quid pro quo – it is difficult to see any merit in it.

Read news coverage from the New York Times and the Albany Times Union.