For several years, corporate defense lawyers and lobbyists have watched Chevron's experiment with using the federal anti-racketeering statute as an aggressive response to mass-liability lawsuits. Now the results are in -- a major victory for the oil company in federal court in New York -- and business advocates predict other corporations will follow suit. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled on Tuesday that a multibillion pollution judgment against Chevron in 2011 by a rainforest court in Ecuador was obtained by means of fabricated evidence, bribery, and other acts violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Kaplan named Steven Donziger, a New York plaintiffs' lawyer, as the mastermind of a legal campaign that began in 1993 and over two decades evolved into an elaborate shakedown scheme. Donziger has denied wrongdoing and vowed to appeal.