This Thursday the national government presented its arguments on the matter expropriation of the YPF and insists, as a State, on revoking jurisdiction from the United States in the Burford casewhere a. already exists to rule against this requires paying $16 billion to the plaintiffs.
The two briefs were presented before Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit of New Yorkregarding adverse sentences issued by the judge Loretta Preska in cases initiated by Petersen and Eton Park on the expropriation of YPF.
On appeal, by the National Treasury ProcurementArgentina requests that the sentences be annulled in full because they are based on errors in Argentine law and on the premise that a United States court should have refrained from exercising jurisdiction over cases based entirely on Argentine law. More simply: the North American country cannot interfere in the regulation of Argentine laws, due to events that occurred in Argentine territory with Argentine companies.
“Both the conclusions of the district court on Argentina’s alleged contractual liability and those relating to the calculation of damages are called into question,” explained sources from the Attorney General’s Office, of which the highest authority is Rodolfo Barra.
The lawyer who works in international trials against the national state is Andres de la Cruzdeputy Treasury attorney and former partner at the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.
In the grounds of the appeal, the regional director of Latam Advisors, Sebastiano Maril, noted that the State stated: “Because the court misapplied Argentine public and private law in sustaining the plaintiffs’ claims for ‘breach of contract,’ this court should reverse the decision. The court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, interpreting complex issues of Argentine law and, for the most part, establishing new Argentine jurisprudence in favor of the plaintiffs in almost every respect.
“To start, This lawsuit should never have reached a New York court. The accused is the Argentine Republic, the facts in question occurred exclusively in Argentina and everyone agrees that the accusations should be analyzed exclusively through the prism of Argentine law. The Argentine civil legal system does not recognize a suit for breach of contract and damages by one shareholder against another for violation of corporate statutes,” the country explained, through its legal representative.
Then the state goes further. “In addition to its errors on the merits, the district court grossly inflated plaintiffs’ damages when it should have converted damages from Argentine pesos to U.S. dollars using the exchange rate in effect on the date of its ruling (September 15, 2023),” he asks.
It adds: “If a foreign court permitted plaintiffs to sue the U.S. government under U.S. law for conduct occurring in the United States, created a cause of action not previously recognized by U.S. courts, and then awarded an excessive sum of 2 trillion dollars (the equivalent percentage of U.S. federal spending last year), the U.S. government, the U.S. legal system, and the international community would rightly surprised”. They indicate, without saying it “principle of non-interference” in internal affairs.
On this occasion, the arguments of Javier Milei’s team are similar to those previously supported by Kirchner officials, including the former attorney general. Carlo Zannini, and so far it has had no results. However, Maril explained when she was asked Clarion that the State cannot present new arguments on appeal.
The expropriation of YPF shares in 2012, decided by the former president Cristina Kirchner and the former Minister of Economy and now governor of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillofit already costs the national state something 5 billion dollars plus interest paid Repsol.
Law firm Burford Capital bought the rights to the litigation after the bankruptcy of the Petersen companies, which belonged to the family Eskenazi, “regulated markets experts” who joined the company in 2008 and financed the purchase by taking the oil company’s profits. The enormous outflow of dollars to pay a loan in Spain to the banks that supported that operation and the lack of investment in energy which led to a trade deficit of one million dollars were two of the main reasons why the shares in dollars at the end of 2011.
Source: Clarin
