In the midst of the international judicial dispute linked to the trial for the purchase of YPF, the Treasury Attorney General’s Office presented to the United States Justice a formal request to suspend the discovery process that had been initiated by the Court of the Southern District of New York and the contempt motion presented by Burford Capital.
As confirmed by official sources to Infobae, the request before the court presided over by American Judge Loretta Preska was made during the early hours of this Wednesday.In this way, the national authorities would seek to stop the “systematic harassment” promoted by the law firm, which benefited in the first instance of the process.“They came this far,” indicated this medium.
“The systematic harassment against a sovereign State and ally of the United States, through intrusive and disproportionate discovery requests, directly affects Argentine sovereignty and international relations,” they considered about the litigation strategies promoted by Burford Capital to collect the USD 16,000 million established in the ruling that calls the improper expropriation of the oil company.
In recent weeks, the controversy escalated when the litigating company requested not only the contempt motion but also detailed information about the location of the gold reserves of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA).
Hours before the suspension request was sent, the Treasury Attorney General’s Office had responded to the US Justice Department that these reserves “are property of the Central Bank” and “are protected by immunity from execution, that is, they constitute non-executable assets, so any request for information in this regard is manifestly inadmissible.”
Although the Government sent a request to access the required information, they warned that the decision would be subject to the BCRA. Likewise, they reiterated that “Argentina fully continued with the discovery process ordered in this case.”
According to the CEO of Latam Advisors, Sebastián Maril, the rejection of the beneficiaries’ request was also expressly made, for the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, to appear to testify about the location and use of the national reserves.
According to the National Treasury Attorney’s Office, “the Argentine State made an extraordinary effort to deliver all reasonably relevant information, with an unprecedented volume of production.”Despite this, Buford Capital maintained that there would be information gaps, after not having attached the private conversations of the current officials and the previous administration.
Thus, the British company used that detail as an argument, to ask that the country be declared in contempt.Faced with this, the national authorities denounced that the plaintiffs intensified their claims with requests that were “increasingly legally unacceptable, invasive, costly and completely unrelated to the purpose of the process.”
For this reason, the legal representatives of Argentina accused the law firm of transforming the discovery into a tool of political and judicial pressure.“The promoted discovery has been denatured and transformed into a tool of harassment, destined to hinder the normal functioning of the Argentine State,” they stated.
In line with this, the Treasury Office publicly accused the counterparty of having “explicitly stated its objective of ‘putting sand in the gears’ of Argentina’s economic recovery.”For this reason, they defined this attitude as “legally and morally unacceptable,” after indicating that the only purpose would be to advance the payment of the million-dollar figure, despite the fact that the process would still be under review.
Finally, the Treasury Attorney General’s Office reaffirmed its commitment to “continue to exercise all the legal tools at its disposal, in all available judicial instances, to protect its sovereignty, defend the rule of law and put a stop to illegitimate requests that violate its laws, its Constitution and the basic principles of international law.”
Tomorrow, both parties will appear at a hearing, which had been agreed upon prior to Burford Capital’s request for contempt.From the Attorney General’s Office they assured that the Argentine position will be firmer than ever and that they will seek to convince Preska, to prevent it from continuing to give rise to the requests of the British firm.
Regarding the margin of action of those who benefited from the first ruling, it was confirmed that they will have the possibility of making a new defense in response on February 19.Thus, official sources evaluated the possibility of new aspects being created in the case, which could be dealt with towards the end of March.
