A federal judge delivered a court victory to Chevron on Tuesday, ruling that a U.S. lawyer had engaged in “corrupt means” to obtain a multi-billion dollar judgment in 2011 against the oil giant for its decades of pollution in Ecuador.

Critics of the ruling say it means further injustice for the tens of thousands of Ecuadoreans who continue to live with the legacy left by Texaco, which was acquired by Chevron in 2001, from its dumping toxic waste and spilling millions of gallons of crude oil between 1964 and 1992, creating what has been dubbed a Chernobyl in the Amazon which has sickened both ecosystems and communities.

The New York Times reports:

Among the witnesses was Ecuadorean judge Nicolas Zambrano, who issued the 2011 ruling. He said that he had not received payment or outside assistance in coming to his decision.

Though Kaplan found that Chevron “might bear some responsibility” for the pollution, Reuters reports that his ruling “bars Donziger and the villagers from enforcing the Ecuadorean ruling in the United States. It may also give Chevron legal ammunition in other countries where the plaintiffs could try to go after Chevron’s assets.”