Cries, tensions and order to negotiate at the first hearing of the YPF trial

NEW YORK.- After a hard setback for Argentina, the first hearing of the
A multi-million dollar lawsuit for the nationalization of YPF against the country began in New York. The lawyers for Argentina and Burford Capital megabuffet met with judge Loretta Preska in a tense official appointment that led to a suggestion by the magistrate that the two sides negotiate an agreement.

The parties arrived at the hearing with a clear objective: to request that the problem be resolved quickly, establish what were the damages that led to the bankruptcy of Petersen Energía Inversora and Petersen Energía and fix the amounts that Argentina had to pay. And they did not understand: Preska explained very clearly that there are still questions to discuss.

On the other hand, after filing a complaint for fraud in the sale of shares of YPF, the legal representatives of Argentina – the Prosecutor of the Treasury, Bernardo Saravia Frías, and the local representation to United States, responsible for the study Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom- were looking for the trial to get to the bottom of the conflict and, faced with new evidence, to try again that the trial go into Argentina.

"These complaints can be judged only in Argentina by a case law established in Argentine law," said one of Argentina's Argentine lawyers. In this regard, he also pointed out that the initial investment allowing the purchase of the shares of Petersen Energía and Petersen Energía Inversora comes from corrupt negotiations (the local Eskenazi family, through the intermediary of the two companies , entered the capital of the oil company in 2008). controversial).

Faced with the complaint, Preska asked how this could influence the demand represented by Burford Capital. "I do not understand, suppose it is true," said the magistrate, before continuing: "Why would that invalidate the purchase and sale of shares and the claim?".

The legal representative of Argentina explained that in the country, if actions are undertaken from a corrupt company, it is illegal to take advantage of it.

Visibly impaired by the words, Burdford Capital's attorney stated that the shares are freely tradable and that this is no problem. In addition, concealed, he explained that his signature is usually not more than four years.

Argentina's lawyers have repeatedly said that this should be transferred to the Argentine justice system. "Fault!" Shouted the plaintiffs' attorney in response and said: "This case does not apply." Preska asked why, and the lawyer said that they had the information in Spanish and that they were still working with specialists. The judge looked incredulously at the person who had pleaded his case.

After about 40 minutes of round-trip, the judge – who was tough on both sides – suggested that the lawyers meet to badess the possibility of an agreement.

In the jury room there were several minutes. The agreement did not come. Next week, a timetable will be set and the parties should make their case to Preska to clarify the way forward.

"It was difficult, but positive, the summary trial was dismissed and the judge made it clear that there were things to discuss," said a source in the Argentine defense.
THE NATION. In addition, questioned about the eventuality of an agreement, he dismissed it and explained: "This has a political context, it is not a case that is solved simply on the commercial plan ".

A few days ago, the US Supreme Court of Justice rejected the request of the Argentine representatives to transfer the trial to the country, despite the defense strategies at the preliminary ruling stage. In contrast, Argentine lawyers presented new legal arguments to the judge seeking to resolve the dispute in Argentina.

Despite the coup, sources close to the Argentine defense told
THE NATION that his strategy has not failed: "We will finance that, that's what we expected."

Why do you plan to conduct the trial in Argentina? The strategy of national defense is that, in this way, the Burford megabuffler gives up pleading: she would have little chance of winning. In addition, to start a lawsuit, they must pay a court rate of 3% on a million dollars.

Among the reasons we think it would be impossible to carry out the trial in the United States, there is the problem of witnesses: the majority resides in the country and it would therefore be practically impossible to transfer each of them. 39 between them. at a trial in New York.

Burford megabufete, for his part, says that during the nationalization of YPF, the government of the current Senator Cristina Kirchner had violated the statutes of the company, under which an offer was to be made to the rest of the shareholders of the company oil.

Mauricio Macri's government tried to reject this complaint, arguing that the expropriation of the oil company was a sovereign act governed by the law on the sovereign immunity of foreigners.

Despite this, the successor of Thomas Griesa, Judge Loretta Preska and the New York Court of Appeals agreed with the arguments of the plaintiff's firm to establish that the complaint was based on a violation of the YPF's laws. and not on the sovereign acts of intervention. and expropriation of Argentina.

The origin of the dispute

Burford – the megabuffet characterized by the purchase of the right of trial for some sums of money in the hope of winning big – has acquired in Spain the possibility to sue Argentina following the bankruptcy of Petersen Energía Inversora and Petersen Energía Eskenazi), which at the time of the nationalization held 25% of the shares of YPF.

In 2012, during the government of Cristina Kirchner, Congress took control of YPF after approving the expropriation of 51% of the shares of the Spanish company Repsol YPF SA, which was then majority shareholder. A total of $ 5371 million was paid; the other partners of the oil company did not receive a takeover bid to sell the remaining shares to the state, while they were forbidden to receive dividends for a while. In this context, Petersen argues that this has resulted in the decline in the value of his shares and has therefore started to claim about $ 3 billion.