So Kerry Kennedy was paid to travel to Ecuador and speak out about the rain forests. You'd think if she cared so much she'd have done it for free and insisted that any payment be given to the indigenous folks in Ecuador - whose livlihoods have indeed been ruined by what the oil companies did.
Daily Mail: NY Governor's ex-wife Kerry Kennedy 'making $40 MILLION by advocating for rainforests'
Activist Kerry Kennedy apparently has more than just a humanitarian interest in the outcome of the trial over the environmental damages caused to Ecuadorian rain forests.
It was revealed today that Ms Kennedy, who is the ex-wife of Governor Andrew Cuomo and former president John F. Kennedy's niece, has a financial stake in the contentious legal battle.
Ms Kennedy has spoken out against oil company Chevron and the damages that their predecessors caused to the tropical wildlife in Ecuador, using her famous name and position as a human rights activist to drum up support for the Ecuadorians involved in the 16-year-long legal battle.
Local courts recently ordered Chevron to pay $18billion in damages-which the company is now appealing- and if the decision is upheld, $40million of that money could go straight to Ms Kennedy.
The New York Post reports that Ms Kennedy, 52, was hired to put a well-known face on the issue, and she has publicly campaigned for the cause by appearing on CNN and writing an op-ed piece for The Huffington Post.
In the 2009 Huffington Post piece, Ms Kennedy told of her trip to the northern area of the country where Texaco- an oil company later bought and now represented by Chevron- drilled about 350 oil wells throughout the rain forest.
'The jungle is a tangle of oil slicks, festering sludge, and rusted pipeline,' she wrote.
Just a few months after penning the article, she was paid $50,000 by the lead attorney in the case against Chevron, Steven Donziger.
'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,' an internal email to the legal team read in October 2009 just before The Huffington Post article.
The budget of the legal team also says that she was due to receive $10,000 per month in 2010 and $40,000 to cover additional expenses.
She is also allotted a 0.25 per cent stake in the financial outcome of the court case. That means that if the recent demand that the company pay $18billion is upheld, Ms Kennedy will be walking away with $40million.
In addition to using her Kennedy name, the legal team was clear that they hoped that her close ties to New York politics would help their fight against Chevron.
Not only was Ms Kennedy's father a former New York senator, but she and current governor Cuomo were married for 13 years and have three daughters together.
Though their divorce was notoriously acrimonious- it was rumored that Mr Cuomo walked in on Ms Kennedy mid-tryst with a married family friend- she surely could have some influence in getting state government officials to call her back.
The legal team wrote emails saying that Ms Kennedy may try to convince New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to have the state cut its' $780million investment in Chevron.
A Chevron spokesman told The Post that 'this is exactly the type of documented misconduct' the plaintiffs have done before.
Though the paper was unable to reach Ms Kennedy herself, Ecuadorian lawyer Pablo Fajardo, who works with her on the case, was happy to defend their position and said that she would continue to work with the team.
The battle in the courthouse is expected to continue for some time, as the plaintiffs hope to expand the scope of their potential financial windfall by looking into international assets that Chevron holds. Their biggest success thus far has been the decision saying the company owes Ecuadorians $18billion, though that money is still being fought over during the appeal.
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