Argentina Civil Judge Adrian Elcuj Miranda ordered 40 percent of Chevron’s bank accounts in Argentina to be held in escrow, Enrique Bruchou, an Argentine attorney at Bruchou, Fernandez, Madero & Lombardi, said on Nov. 7. Bruchou represents the Ecuadorean plaintiffs in the Amazon lawsuit.
Chevron attorneys made the request seeking to suspend an Argentine court order to seize the U.S. oil producer’s assets at Buenos Aires civil court today, and did so to protect that country’s energy industry from a lawsuit that doesn’t apply to any of the firms doing business there. Juan Rivera, an Argentine attorney who said he represents Chevron according to Bloomber, declined to comment on the filing.
Chevron has said this: “Chevron Corp., the Lago Agrio judgment debtor, has no assets in Argentina. All operations in Argentina are conducted by subsidiaries that have nothing to do with the plaintiffs’ fraud in Ecuador. The plaintiffs’ lawyers have no legal right to embargo subsidiary assets in Argentina and should not be allowed to disrupt Argentina’s pursuit of its important energy resources. The Ecuador judgment is a product of bribery, fraud, and it is illegitimate. We do not believe that the Ecuador judgment is enforceable in any court that observes the rule of law.”
In other words, the deal’s bogus.
Stay tuned.