Chevron Corp went to federal court in Miami on Friday seeking to force an Ecuadorean bank to release records of alleged bribes the company says were paid to an independent expert in a multi-billion dollar environmental lawsuit against the oil company.

The company is seeking records of eight bank accounts at the Banco Pichincha, an Ecuadorean bank with a branch in Miami that Chevron says was a conduit for $360,000 in "illicit payments" to the independent expert, Richard Cabrera.

Ecuadorian plaintiffs in an environmental lawsuit against Chevron Corp. (CVX) said Friday they will soon be able to begin a process in foreign countries to pursue a multibillion-dollar ruling issued by Ecuadorian courts against the U.S. company.

Plaintiffs' lawyers have said their strategy to collect the money will include confiscating company assets and freezing international accounts.

Sugarcane-based electricity generation projects in Brazil are being blown out of the water by wind power and other lower-cost energy alternatives, slowing ambitions to expand one of Brazil's largest potential new sources of clean energy, experts said.

The world's No. 1 sugar producer and No. 2 ethanol maker amasses 140 million tonnes a year of bagasse from crushed cane, some of which is burnt in high-efficiency boilers to crank generators supplying a hitherto growing share of Brazil's power.

A court in Ecuador has rejected an order by arbitrators that an $18 billion pollution ruling against Chevron should be frozen, but the judges referred an appeal by the U.S. oil company to the country's Supreme Court.

A year after the landmark decision against Chevron, a panel working for The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration told Ecuador last week to take all necessary measures to suspend enforcement of the award at home and abroad.

An arbitration panel reinforced an order that Ecuador's government seek to suspend an $18 billion court award against U.S. oil company Chevron Corp over pollution in the South American country's rainforest.

A year after its original order, the three-person panel, working under The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration, told the Republic of Ecuador on Thursday to "take all measures necessary" through its judicial, legislative or executive branches to suspend enforcement of the award at home and abroad.

Chevron said Friday that it had no intention of apologizing for the environmental damage to the Amazon rain forest for which an Ecuadorean court ruled it responsible. Attorneys for both sides have said that if Chevron apologized, its legal liability of $18 billion would have been cut to $9.5 billion. Ecuador’s judiciary had set Friday as the deadline for an apology. James Craig, a Chevron spokesman, said an apology would be “a false admission of responsibility.” Chevron has no assets in Ecuador, so the plaintiffs must to try to collect the award abroad.

An Ecuadorean appeals court on Tuesday upheld a ruling that Chevron Corp should pay $18 billion in damages to plaintiffs who accused the U.S. oil giant of polluting the Amazon jungle and damaging their health.

A judge ordered Chevron to pay $8.6 billion in environmental damages last February, but the amount was more than doubled to about $18 billion because Chevron failed to make a public apology as required by the original ruling.