DiNapoli spokeswoman Jennifer Freeman said yesterday that Kramer gives campaign contributions to both sides of the aisle and "supported Tom's opponent in the last election."
The Chevron complaint states that Donziger was rewarded when DiNapoli wrote a letter to the Chevron board urging a settlement and caused or directed the Retirement Fund to sponsor or cosponsor shareholder resolutions criticizing Chevron's record in the Ecuador case and urging it to settle.
In 2011, it states, DiNapoli published an article on the Huffington Post calling Lago Agrio an "industrial cancer zone." The article was titled "What Chevron Owes the People of Lago Agrio."
There are also allegations in the complaint that the Donziger team tried to invite DiNapoli to Ecuador to tour the area and tried to connect DiNapoli with celebrities such as Sting.
"He never met with Sting," Freeman said.
DiNapoli's statement yesterday said the retirement fund, "along with dozens of investors worldwide, has called on Chevron to settle its nearly two-decade-long legal battle for polluting the Amazon."
"Chevron refuses," he said. "This effort is about protecting shareholder value and fulfilling my fiduciary responsibility to the New York Common Retirement Fund. Instead of owning up to its corporate responsibility, time and again Chevron has denied its responsibility, distorted the facts and ignored the law."
Grandeau said yesterday that DiNapoli has 15 days to file a response.
"I would urge Mr. DiNapoli, if he thinks this is baseless," to make his response public and notify the commission "that he is happy" to have this ethics investigation open to the public, Grandeau said.
@|Mark Hamblett can be contacted at mhamblett@alm.com.
Subscribe to New York Law Journal
