Argentina loses Suez compensation claim, Ecuador tourism
controversy, top Mexico City areas for expat executives.
BY LATINVEX STAFF
Drummond Company Inc. is
fighting back lawsuits that claim it aided paramilitary groups in Colombia to
protect its coal business there. Not
only are the charges false, but they are being promoted by profit-seeking tort
lawyers that have bribed witnesses, the company says.
In the most recent case,
the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, recently
dismissed a 2009 case claiming that company and two of its executives had been
accused of allegedly being involved in a conspiracy with paramilitary groups.
The Atlanta court ruled the case lacked merits.
“With the company and
its executives cleared of any wrong-doing, Drummond welcomes this ruling as a
re-affirmation that we conduct business obeying the law,” the firm said in a
statement last week. “At no time have we been involved in illegal activities or
in relationships with illegal groups. “
Instead, Drummond points
the finger at overzealous lawyers. “This case was brought about by ambitious
lawyers seeking large windfall profits by creating false charges using paid
witnesses,” Drummond said in its statement. “Evidence has been uncovered
that these witnesses and/or their families were given financial benefits by the
lawyers. Justice has been served by the courts! Now, these falsely
accused executives can work without these false accusations hanging over their
heads so that they and the company can work to create a better and safer way of
life for our workers and the communities in which we work.”
The
Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s factual findings that there is no
evidence that Drummond Company Inc., Drummond Ltd or its executives were
involved in the paying of the paramilitary group AUC. Additionally the
Court ruled that there is no evidence that Drummond executives “knew that noncombatants
were being murdered along the rail lines,” or that the “paramilitary
group AUC was allegedly being paid by Drummond.” Also, the district court
found that the “Plaintiffs´ admissible evidence did not raise a genuine issue
of material fact as to either of the individual defendants´ liability.”
Accordingly, the Court affirmed the summary judgment in favor of the
executives.
The
Court ruled that the evidentiary record “demonstrated an absence of evidence in
support of Plaintiffs´ case” against the executives. Specifically, there
was no evidence that either executive “had any knowledge of an alleged
corporate scheme to fund or otherwise support the AUC, much less that they had
any part in such a scheme or control over those who allegedly did.”
The
ruling further stated that “Plaintiffs have failed to adduce any evidence
creating a genuine issue of material fact” as to the executives´ “liability for
any alleged corporate scheme resulting in the killings of noncombatants along
Defendants´ mining operation and rail lines by the AUC….” and “there is no
factual basis to sustain liability for Plaintiffs´ TVPA [Torture Victim
Protection Act of 1991] claims against the individual defendants.”
Drummond also recently
filed a lawsuit that alleges several lawyers, an advocacy group, and a Dutch
competitor, are involved in a criminal campaign to extort money from Drummond
over claims that claim it collaborated with a paramilitary organization in the
murders of Colombian civilians to protect its coal interests in that South
American country, AL.com reports.
Drummond's
latest complaint, filed March 27 in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, claims
the defendants have violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations
Act - or RICO.
"Over
the span of more than six years, defendants have engaged in a multifaceted
criminal campaign to exert pressure upon Drummond in an attempt to damage
Drummond's reputation and business interests and obtain a fraudulent and
extortionate financial windfall," according to the lawsuit.
Drummond's lawsuit names
as one defendant Terrence P. Collingsworth, a partner in the Florida -based law
firm of Conrad Scherer, who has been a lawyer in the three lawsuits
against Drummond. Collingsworth also serves as executive director of the group
International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates) and serves as an agent for Albert
van Bilderbeek, one of the owners of the Dutch company Llanos Oil described as
a competitor that lost oil and gas rights to Drummond in Colombia.
Drummond has been sued
at least four times in federal court in Alabama over allegations that it had a
hand in murders in Colombia. The company has maintained those allegations are
not true.
REFORMA AND POLANCO: FAVORITE HOMES OF
FOREIGN EXECUTIVES
Avenida Reforma and the Polanco
neighborhood are the undisputed favorite areas for expatriate executives when
they choose where to live in Mexico City.
Around 50 percent of the
executives choose to live on Reforma, while the other half live in Polanco, according
to data from realtor Coldwell Banker quoted by El Financiero.
“Younger people without
children choose Polanco and executives with families or higher ranking
executives are more inclined at Reforma,” Coldwell Invest General Manager
Manuel Diaz tells El Financiero.
ARGENTINA: SUEZ PAYMENT UNLIKELY BEFORE
ELECTION
Although Argentina was ordered by The World Bank’s International Centre for
Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) to pay French company Suez a
compensation of $405 million for the 2006 cancellation of its contract, experts
believe it will be the next government that will heed the order.
“The
fact that a ruling has been made after nine years opens the space for
negotiation,” Carla Selman, a Latin
America analysts at IHS, said in a commentary. “However, the government of
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
is highly unlikely to meet the payment in full or engage in negotiations in the
run-up to the October 2015 elections, as it would be politically damaging for
her nationalist rhetoric if she is seen as negotiating with a foreign company.
It is more likely that the next government will be in charge to reach a deal,
as the three main contenders for the elections are more prone to honor
international commitments, with the aim of bringing Argentina back to
international markets, from where it has been marginalized since the 2002
default. As in the past, a negotiated amount, probably in bonds, is more likely
to be paid.”
The three top contenders are Buenos Aires mayor Mauricio Macri, who is the business
favorite; Sergio Massa, a former
chief of staff of Cristina Kirchner who now leads a dissident faction within
the ruling Peronist party and Daniel
Scioli, a former vice president and current governor of the Buenos Aires
Province who has Kirchner’s backing.
Argentina
still has 19 pending cases at ICSID, in the context of reversing the privatization
processes of the 1990s, and the currency changes in 2001 when it abandoned its
peg to the dollar and froze utility rates, according to IHS. In October 2013,
Argentina paid $677 million to utilities and telecommunications companies
mostly via bonds, including Azurix, CMS Gas, Continental Casualty, Vivendi, and
National Grid, which accepted a reduction in their original claims.
ECUADOR: FAKE TOURISM CAMPAIGN ANGERS COSTA
RICA
Ecuador’s tourism
officials are in hot water after they faked a trip to Costa Rica for a group of
travelers, The Tico Times reports.
In a stunt carried out by
the Ecuadorean airline Tame, Ecuador’s Tourism Ministry and Ministry of
Transport and Public Works, 40 tourists were taken to an area they were led to
believe was Costa Rica before being told that they were actually in Ecuador,
the paper says.
Costa Rican newspaper La Nacion published the official Ecuadorian video of the ruse.
“We’re unhappy about
their use of our country to trick their people into getting to know their own
country,” Tourism Minister Wilhelm von Breymann told The Tico Times.
Von Breymann said that
ICT and Procomer’s lawyers were looking into possible legal action over the
misuse of Costa Rica’s national brand.
The latest video comes
after Ecuador made a splash at this year’s Super Bowl, the first time a foreign
government had purchased air time during the annual event that is known as much
for football as the TV ads during broadcast of the match. It paid $3.8 million
for a 30-second spot, All You Need Ecuador (see video here).
Meanwhile, Ecuador is embroiled in another controversy relating to a US PR firm that has received $9.7 million from Ecuador's government to campaign against Chevron. In the latest case, the firm sued Hollywood star Sharon Stone (See Ecuador Planned Sharon Stone Luxury Trip).
However, Stone is fighting back the allegations from the PR firm, MCSquared. Stone's lawyer says the actress never agreed to go to Ecuador to advocate against Chevron, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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