U.S. appeals court upholds Venezuela creditors ability to sue

O-I Glass

07/07/2023 20:34

July 7 (Reuters) - A U.S. court of appeals on Friday
rejected Venezuela's bid to prevent six companies from joining a
proposed court auction of shares in a Citgo Petroleum parent to
enforce judgments for past expropriation of assets.
    The decision allows the six to move ahead with their about
$3 billion in combined claims against Venezuela state oil firm
PDVSA in a Delaware federal court. That court is in the initial
steps of preparing an auction as soon as September.   
    "For the second time in five years, we conclude that PDVSA
is the alter ego of Venezuela, and we will affirm the District
Court's denial of sovereign immunity to PDVSA," the three judge
panel ruled. It also declined to consider PDVSA's request to bar
the attachments from the district court case.  
    The companies had won conditional attachments to a federal
case in which the judge has approved a process to auction the
shares to pay a $970 million judgment won by miner Crystallex. 
    Since March, creditors including a unit of O-I Glass  OI.N ,
Huntington Ingalls Industries  HII.N , ACL1 Investments, Koch
Minerals and mining firms Rusoro Mining  RML.V  and Gold Reserve
 GRZ.V , have been granted rights to seize shares in the parent
of Venezuela-owned refiner Citgo, PDV Holding.

 (Reporting by Gary McWilliams; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
 ((Gary.McWilliams@thomsonreuters.com; +1 469-691-7668;))