From vigilante to blackmailer, he is a step that Timothy Litzenburg has taken. The 38-year-old American lawyer, who had been at the forefront of the lawsuits against Monsanto and the alleged carcinogenic effects of Roundup, was sentenced Friday, September 18, to two years in prison by a federal court in Virginia for attempting to extort $ 200 million (172 million euros) from a company producing one of the components of Roundup herbicide. The court does not name the victim but it is, according to the Wall Street Journal, of Nouryon, the former chemical division of AkzoNobel, headquartered in Amsterdam. The lawyer had pleaded guilty in June “Use of interstate communications for the purpose of extortion”, just like his partner Daniel Kincheloe, sentenced to one year in prison. The invocation of interstate communications is the legal means that allowed the federal justice to prosecute the case.
It all started in September 2019. Mr. Litzenburg sent Nouryon a “Draft complaint” on behalf of a client he claims to represent. The lawyer is availing himself of his victory in the Monsanto trial in California: he had been, within the teams of the Miller cabinet, one of the defenders of the gardener Dewayne Johnson, suffering from cancer (non-Hodgkin lymphoma). The latter had obtained from a California jury $ 289 million in damages in August 2018, compensation reduced the following October to 78.5 million by a judge then, on appeal in July 2020, to 20.4 million.
Dismissed in the wake of the lawsuit by his employer who accused him of wanting to plunder the Roundup file, Mr. Litzenburg is then self-employed and claims to represent some 800 plaintiffs against Monsanto. On October 16, 2019, Mr. Litzenburg informed Nouryon’s lawyer that he would file his complaint unless an arrangement could be found. Two days later, he seeks $ 5 million in compensation for his client and demands the signing of a “Consultant contract” for him and his partner Daniel Kincheloe to the tune of $ 200 million. A “Minimum”, assures Mr. Litzenburg, who later clarifies his requirements by e-mail. ” The trial [Nouryon] on the non-Hodgkin lymphoma that we are preparing will be “Roundup 2”, and I look forward to leading the charge again. This time, to my great financial benefit ”, writes the lawyer, who intends not to pay a dollar to the clients he is supposed to represent.
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