A federal judge ruled that a record $9.5 billion environmental-damage award against Chevron Corp. was tainted by the misdeeds of a lawyer leading the lawsuit, giving the oil giant a boost in its battle against a global effort to seize its assets. In the latest twist in one of the longest-running legal battles in corporate history, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan found that New York lawyer Steven Donziger and his litigation team engaged in coercion, bribery, money laundering and other misconduct aimed at securing a 2011 verdict against the company in Ecuador. The judge’s decision bars Mr. Donziger and his two Ecuadorean co-defendants from profiting from the award and excoriates the plaintiffs’ attorney, who has spent the bulk of his legal career pursuing the case. The judge concluded that Mr. Donziger and his team fabricated evidence, promised $500,000 to an Ecuadorean judge to rule in their favor, ghostwrote much […]