Good news this morning: ConocoPhillips has filed a lawsuit against PDVSA US Litigation Trust in New York. Only through such litigations in the U.S. can Venezuelans get a glimpse of the massive corruption within PDVSA.
@conocophillips is suing Bill Duker (Algamex), representatives from @bsfllp (Swyer & Andrews), Alexis Arellano, @PDVSA, and the Litigation Trust in the Southern District of New York #popcorn pic.twitter.com/oAwkInMds0
— alek boyd (@alekboyd) July 9, 2018
It was actually just a matter of time before PDVSA’s creditors began to go after Boies et al. While profits are nowhere near being gained, that agreement, through which PDVSA essentially gave Boies, Duker, and Brennan a whopping 66% of its claims, was not going to go unanswered.
ConocoPhillips accuses PDVSA of attempting to evade its commitments through the Trust “with the real intent to obstruct, delay, or defraud its creditors, including ConocoPhillips.” It’s unlikely this action will be the last against PDVSA, considering Venezuela’s outstanding obligations to creditors exceeding $180 billion.
Elsewhere in PACER, we find that David Boies is getting quite creative with his arguments. He claims State Doctrine regarding PDVSA US Litigation Trust’s obligation to comply with discovery procedures. Boies presumably brings this up from his time involved in Argentina’s fight against bondholders after the default. It seems he has overlooked that it’s not the same for bondholders (tort claimants) to file a lawsuit against the Republic of Argentina in U.S. courts as it is for the Republic of Venezuela (tort claimant) to go to U.S. courts to pursue alleged fraudulent conduct.
In the first case, Argentina tried to evade its obligations by claiming that the Argentine state institutions that defaulted on bondholders were separate entities, somewhat independent of the state. Thus, their actions could not be: a) linked to Argentina, and b) challenged based on the legality of their actions under Argentine law (State Doctrine).
However, in the second case, Boies would like PDVSA to evade its obligations to comply with discovery, arguing that the questions to determine the legitimacy of the PDVSA Litigation Trust in the U.S. are…