Corruption in Ecuador accused Ecuador of violating the due process of 27 Supreme Court justices dismissed by Congress in 2004. In 2015, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) stated that “judicial independence is seriously compromised” in Ecuador. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled in 2014 that an $18 billion pollution judgment against Chevron by an Ecuadoran court in 2011 had been the product of corruption. Attorney Steven Donziger and his legal team, according to Kaplan, had “used bribery, fraud and extortion” to win the case for his clients, a group of Ecuadoran villagers. Evidence showed that the ruling issued by Ecuadoran judge Nicolas Zambrano
Oil shale in Israel company envisioned bringing bitumen by pipeline from the Ashdod refinery and returning product along the same corridor. However, the plan was not implemented, and Hom Tov subsequently ceased to operate. In July 2011, Israel Energy Initiatives, a subsidiary of Genie Energy, received a one-year extension of its three year exclusive license to explore oil shale resources on in Israel's Shfela region. The project is suspended. In May 2011, the Russian energy company Inter RAO announced that it had received a license to develop oil shale resources in the Negev desert. The company was said to be planning an oil extraction