July 2018

Not a lot to add really. David Boies lied argued in different court hearings that Venezuela's interim Attorney General, Reinaldo Muñoz Pedroza, and PDVSA's legal counsel Hilda Cabeza, could not travel outside of Venezuela to be deposed, on specific orders from President Nicolas Maduro. Folks within Venezuela's Immigration Office leaked travel logs proving otherwise.

Further to the argument advanced by David Boies, regarding inability to produce Venezuelan officials Reinaldo Muñoz and Hilda Cabeza for depositions related to PDVSA US Litigation Trust case (allegedly on express orders from President Nicolas Maduro), travel logs of Muñoz and Cabeza show that they have travelled all right. Just not to where Boies wants them...

PACER continues to be the only venue where those of us interested in PDVSA / Venezuela legal affairs can keep tabs on Nicolas Maduro's regime actions. The issue of standing, whether Litigation Trust has: 1) a valid legal footing under Venezuelan law, and 2) whether its signatories had valid powers to assign Venezuela's sovereign claims to David Boies, continues to be discussed.

Defendants in the case brought by PDVSA US Litigation Trust are challenging its standing. It is the natural thing to do, considering parties involved in setting up the trust, and the fact that defendants' Trafigura, Glencore, Vitol, Lukoil, etc., very business model is precisely to find and operate in resource-rich, desperately-corrupt banana republics, like Venezuela.

Further to corrupt saga behind PDVSA US Litigation Trust, there is another action that has gone almost unnoticed: a Swiss criminal probe into the affair. A separate civil lawsuit in Florida (Sargeant, III v. Maroil Trading Inc et al - 9:17-cv-81070) provides some clues as to who is calling the shots in Switzerland, and further exposes David Boies' dodgy enterprise.

Continuing with the question of whether David Boies and Boies Schiller Flexner LLP (BSF) complied with FCPA, in the contract (Engagement Letter) with PDVSA that underpinned the formation of PDVSA US Litigation Trust, I should comment on another aspect of it: possible conflicts and waivers.

That Conoco lawsuit against PDVSA US Litigation Trust must have a lot of folks quite nervous. There are inaccuracies in particulars of claim, like the ultimate parent of Algamex in Isle of Man, or who exactly is behind the Trust.

Great news this AM: ConocoPhillips has sued PDVSA US Litigation Trust in New York. Only through this sort of litigation in the US can Venezuelans peek into the gargantuan corruption in PDVSA.

Remember that beautiful sailing boat owned by Bill Duker? It's called Sybaris.