YPF: Argentina asks Preska to analyze a refund claim

For the Skkaden study lawyers representing the country, the judge's position was a feat. Although it is acknowledged that the goal of the maximum is far from being reached, the fact that the end of the trial was not arranged immediately; opens a space of time for debate in the audience room that Thomas Griesa once managed. The novelty arrived in Buenos Aires yesterday afternoon and was carried away like a party. For the government, the extension of the time limit will determine that the final decision will take several more weeks and that the chapter of the YPF trial in New York may also be used in the election campaign; since the two main players in the operation of YPF renationalization are today the main candidates of the opposition: the former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and l & # 39; 39, former Minister of Economy Axel Kicillof. These in addition to the former Minister of Planning, Julio de Vido. Within the executive, it was considered that Skkaden's strategy, developed with representatives of the ruling party that deals with the case, based on "defamation of the courts", flourished. Official sources even speak of the success of the "Burlandización" of the international strategy (recommended Buenos Aires); a goal and a technique that would have surprised Burford's lawyers, accustomed to dealing with all kinds of strategies, but obviously not to these mechanisms to save time and complicate arguments.

Following this line, yesterday's audience in the second southern district of New York had a Creole print. It was pointed out by the Skadden studio's lawyer, Maura Grinalds, who raised the Argentinean stance of the need to move the case to Buenos Aires on the argument, advanced Wednesday by this newspaper, to the need to judge the way in 2008. 25% of YPF were sold. At the beginning of the hearing, the lawyer presented the reasons for the request, based on the fact that the operation could have included acts of corruption, which must be judged by Argentine law. And since many local witnesses are involved, the local justice is the one that must receive their statement. If guilt is finally proven, it will be the turn of the local judges to go ahead with sanctions; and, if that were to happen, the sale of 25% would be illegal and, therefore, impossible to judge in New York. Preska herself answered the arguments badly. At one point, she immediately interrupted Grinalds by asking "how was this related to the underlying problem" and "why would this proposal invalidate the sale of the shares". The answer from Skadden's lawyer was vehement enough that the judge had to challenge her, asking for "an order" and lowering the tone with which he had spoken to her. At that time, representatives of the Argentine government in the public hearing room thought the worst and Preska's position against the country was already decided.

However, he was surprised when Burford's lawyers answered and was also reprimanded by Preska; with the same imperative tone that Grinalds had already undergone. Mark Hansen, of Kellogg Studio, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick (hired by Christopher Bogart, CEO of Burford), is the one who received Preska's reprimands by insisting that the judge speed up his decision to stop the trial and determine and how Argentina should pay for losing the cause. However, while the judge was commenting on Argentina 's position, Hansen interrupted the cry of "error, error …".

Preska, already somewhat stunned and even stunned (and suspected of not knowing much about the cause), called the parties to an immediate round of negotiations to see if they could reach an agreement. After 20 minutes, and without the lawyers having progressed, the judge determined that there were still "issues to be addressed and understood", which would open "new proceedings" so that the parties could present their arguments. . In the case of Argentina, submit to the magistrate the standards in force in the country, so that any resolution in New York must wait for the investigation to advance because of the "corruption" in the US. operation of selling 25% of the shares. The only cause that deals with this subject is under the power of Judge Ariel Lijo and is based on a denunciation of the 2008 MP Elisa Carrió, and that they have no major movements, although that makes already more than 10 years since his presentation took place. In the case of Burford's lawyers, they will have to explain why they claim that this sale has nothing to do with the purchase of the shares of the dispute in Madrid, while Petersen Energía and Petersen Energía Inversora were already bankrupt .

The case is based on the Burford lawsuit, to which Eton adhered, for the way the oil company was nationalized without going through a takeover bid, as it appeared in the 1993 law during the privatization promoted in the presidency of Carlos Menem. In this country, the country has committed, on the New York Stock Exchange, in any subsequent acquisition transaction of part of the oil company, obliging to make an offer for all of the shares market at the same value. In 2013, Burford negotiated with the Spanish courts the takeover of the bankruptcy of the companies Petersen Energy and Petersen Energía Inversora, two companies that originally represented the shares of the Petersen group in the oil company; but that already at the beginning of this year they had filed for bankruptcy with the courts of Madrid. Burford, a specialist in the detection of internationally judged and potentially litigious cases, has acquired judgment rights for approximately US $ 13 million under a contract signed by the liquidator of the bankruptcy. In the presentation of the writings of Burford, he specified that the purchase of the case came back to the Spanish justice and that in 2013, it had nothing to do with the oil company Petersen Group. This point would also be one of the plaintiff's arguments in favor of rejecting Argentina's request to transfer the case to Buenos Aires to determine whether unlawful acts had been committed at the time of the Petersen group entered the oil company. Burford is not a specialist in financial investments, but focuses on the alternative of finding mega-capital companies in bankruptcy or bankruptcy with third-party claims, but not having the right to sue for years.

In the case of Petersen, after the re-nationalization of 51% of YPF in May 2015, he was unable to support the purchase of the 25% he had agreed upon in the time of Néstor Kirchner. The Argentine group was presented in competition in Spain in 2012, unable to continue making payments for its entry into the oil company, prohibiting the government of Cristina de Kirchner to pay dividends and with the nationalized YPF. For example, Petersen had agreed with the Argentinian government on the liquidation of its initial debt with Repsol. The government's change of plans in 2012 therefore determined its bankruptcy and subsequent bankruptcy. A few months later, Burford appeared and claimed some $ 3,000 million.