There’s something rotten in the legal adventures of the PDVSA US Litigation Trust. If we are to believe the complaint filed by David Boies in a Florida court, PDVSA reached an agreement in July 2017 with Boies’ law firm, which was tasked with suing 49 co-conspirators (Morillo, Baquero, Helsinge, Trafigura, and others) in a scheme said to have cost over $5 billion. The engagement letter, which outlines the conditions governing the division of (potential) revenues among the parties, remains hidden. Judge Otazo-Reyes requested Boies to produce “drafts of the Trust Agreement by May 8, 2018.” Boies also needs to present “by May 22, 2018” the trustee Alexis Arellano (a fugitive with an arrest warrant in Ecuador) and Nelson Martínez (the former head of PDVSA who signed the agreement with Boies but was later fired and arrested on corruption charges). A critical piece of evidence in the conspiracy, a “cloned server” kept by one of the conspirators in Miami, was voluntarily sent to a Swiss prosecutor conducting a criminal investigation into the same matter before Boies could access it.
The timeline of events is key to understanding this situation. PDVSA instructed Boies in July 2017 to act in the U.S. jurisdiction. PDVSA should have also instructed (when?) the Swiss law firm – Canonica Valticos de Preux, linked to Wilmer Ruperti – that was representing its interests in Switzerland:
– Canonica filed a criminal complaint in Geneva on February 13, 2018.
– On March 2, a raid was conducted at Helsinge’s Geneva office.
– Boies initiated a civil case in Florida on March 3.
– On March 4, John Ryan, an employee of Helsinge, was arrested in Geneva.
– On March 5, a hearing regarding a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) took place in Miami: it rejected Boies’ “request to seize and copy all electronic and paper records of the Defendants, granted the Plaintiff’s request to order the preservation of materials, and ordered that the TRO be delivered to all Defendants within 7 days.”
– On March 8, a lawyer from Boies emailed Daniel Lutz of Helsinge regarding the TRO.
– On March 9, 2018, the “cloned server” that Ryan had in Miami was sent to Switzerland. The Swiss prosecutor claimed that PDVSA’s legal counsel (Canonica) informed him of the server’s existence and demanded Ryan send it, which he did voluntarily after negotiating with the Swiss prosecutor.
– On March 9, Eve Dolon (Ryan’s Swiss attorney) texted Canonica with a copy of the FedEx tracking info related to the server shipment, joking “Apparemment pas Brennan!”, referring to investigator John Brennan, hired by Boies to keep Ryan and his office/home under surveillance.
– During a hearing on March 14, Boies told the Court: “And as the Court also knows, a server that was subject to the Court’s order was taken and sent to Switzerland. Now we do not know what else was taken. One of the reasons we have summoned Mr. Maldonado to this hearing is to try to investigate that. But we do know that the server was taken. Now they claim that they did nothing to it and just sent it to Switzerland. We have no way of knowing that. What we do know is that it was taken out of the Court’s jurisdiction in violation of the TRO.” Boies continues to argue that he does not have a “complete inventory” of the information contained in the server.
A request for comments has been sent to Canonica. If Boies is going to convincingly argue the legal standing of PDVSA US Litigation Trust in Florida, its Swiss counterparts would also have to do so. Canonica has also been asked to comment on its law firm’s relations with Ruperti.
Another request was sent to Johan Droz, the Swiss prosecutor, regarding whether he shares the concerns about legal standing with Judge Otazo-Reyes concerning PDVSA’s representatives (Canonica). ADDED May 18, 10:03 GMT: Mr. Droz sent through a spokesperson the following: “The Geneva Prosecutor’s Office has opened a criminal investigation after receiving a criminal complaint from PDVSA on February 13, 2018. Due to the ongoing investigation, no further comments will be made.” END.
The trust was created by individuals who no longer hold any power within PDVSA. The venture violates Venezuelan law. It is believed that the new Minister of Oil and CEO of PDVSA, Manuel Quevedo, ordered Boies to remove Trafigura from the lawsuit. Has the same been done with Canonica in Switzerland? PDVSA continues to deliver oil and conduct transactions with Trafigura, despite the legal actions (2.5 million barrels were delivered to Trafigura in March and April). The current VP of PDVSA, Ysmel Serrano (a pawn of Tareck el Aissami), has been accused by Boies of being one of the corrupt officials bribed by Morillo.
Court documents in Florida indicate that, so far, there is no jurisdiction over Morillo and Baquero; and no proper service has been made to either of them.
Sources in Caracas report that Boies, Algamex (the nondescript financing vehicle), and John Brennan will receive a share of the profits.
This may be Ruperti at his most intriguing. He sold the idea of millions in fees/percentages to Boies, Duker, Brennan, and Canonica, thanks to the information supplied by Morillo’s estranged wife. He presented the deal to the totally corrupt chavistas, promising to fund the whole venture in exchange for a 34% bribe (of potential revenues) for using PDVSA’s name, just as he had done with Novoship. He shot down his ex-partner Trafigura along with some of the world’s biggest trading houses. Payback in Wilmer Ruperti style, everyone apparently dancing to his tune.
It remains to be seen whether Swiss prosecutors will get involved – at Ruperti’s behest – in Boies’ civil suit in Florida and share critical evidence. It is a fact that the accused will attempt everything in their power to block that.