pdvsa us litigation trust

Yesterday afternoon documents were filed in the docket of PDVSA US Litigation Trust v Lukoil, Helsinge, Glencore, Trafigura et al. Judge Alicia M. Otazo-Reyes concluded that David Boies / PDVSA Litigation Trust had no standing, that Boies "failed to support that it holds a valid assignment from PDVSA", and that Litigation Trust's formation was invalid as per current Venezuelan law. Pretty damning stuff (see pdf below). That was to be expected, of course.

Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), lest our American friends forget, is the principal engine of whatever is left of Venezuela's economy. It has always been thus. Whatever happens with / to PDVSA, is a matter of great significance to / for Venezuela and its citizens. PDVSA launched in Florida and Switzerland competing fraud claims -against Glencore, Trafigura, Vitol, Lukoil, etc.- in what its legal counsel presented as one of the largest corruption schemes to hit the energy giant. A scheme that, allegedly, lasted years and cost the company billions in losses.

Great news: the court has unsealed the Engagement Letter, between PDVSA and Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, which sets the rules for establishment of PDVSA US Litigation Trust. This is but confirmation of what this site published a while ago.

Sources in DC report that the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has taken on PDVSA US Litigation Trust case. Reading this site might have helped! DoJ officials travelled recently to Switzerland, as per Swiss sources, to meet with Swiss counterparts involved in criminal complaint filed by PDVSA's (and also Wilmer Ruperti's) lawyer Guerric Canonica.

Someone told me the other day that David Boies, America's pre-eminent litigator, is complaining about this website. Boies is not happy with leaks that paint him -and his client (PDVSA)- as liars. For the record, I have written to Boies, seeking his comment on involvement with PDVSA US Litigation Trust case.

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.