Lago Agrio oil field US attorney, Steven Donziger, had used "corrupt means," including payment of almost US$300,000 in bribes, to obtain the 2011 court verdict in Ecuador. The judge did not rule on the underlying issue of environmental damages. While the US ruling does not affect the decision of the court in Ecuador, it has blocked efforts to collect damages from Chevron in US courts. Donziger and the two Ecuadorian defendants appealed, and on August 8, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the district court's judgment against them in all respects. In September 2018, the District of Columbia
Corruption in Ecuador forms of corruption. Judges do not act independently, and judicial proceedings can be lengthy, confusing, and inconclusive. The system is compromised by the fact that the Judicial Council, the judiciary's governing body, is run by an intimate of Correa's, Gustavo Jalkh, who was the president's private secretary. “Corruption, inefficiency, and political influence have plagued the Ecuadorian judiciary for many years,” stated Human Rights Watch in 2012. According to the "Daily Mail", Ecuador “has a Byzantine legal framework” with an overcrowded prison system, and many of those imprisoned being political opponents of Correa's. In 2011 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights