YPF trial in the United States: the government is asked to "defend national interests" and support the complaint against Cristina and Eskenazi

The unexpected turn of events in the lawsuit against Argentina for the expropriation of YPF shares from the Eskenazi family without the corresponding compensation in 2008 - reported this Sunday by Clarín - caused an explosion of repercussions on social networks and also in civil organizations. The entities demand that the government uphold the complaint that the American judge Loretta Preska opened for consideration by the parties of the process despite the fact that she has already sentenced the country to pay 16 billion dollars to the holders of those rights of the Eskenazi family, the investment funds Burford Capital and Eton Park.

The issue is very important, the chances are remote and we must act quickly : last week, the American civil organization Republican Action for Argentina (RAFA) presented a request for reconsideration of the ruling against the country based on a complaint of fraud to the American justice system due to the alleged collusion of Cristina Kirchner and a businessman close to her and her husband, the head of the Petersen Group, Enrique Eskenazi, in the process of "Argentinization" of YPF in 2008. Four years later, Cristina expropriated the shares of the Spanish parent company Repsol, without arranging compensation or payments to Eskenazi, with whom the link was mysteriously broken after the death of Néstor Kirchner in 2010.

The Petersen Group ceded, lost, lent or agreed - the verb changes depending on who is telling the story - the judicial rights to the economic claim, which ended up being executed by the two investment funds that held them. The court ruled in their favor in a ruling that was extremely damaging to Argentina.

But last Monday, Argentine lawyer and RAFA head Fernando Irazú filed a "Rule 60 Motion" - a procedural tool to challenge already signed sentences on the grounds that they omitted information that was not available during the trial - and surprisingly Dr. Preska accepted it and sent it to the parties in the case to comment. If no extensions are requested or granted, the deadline to issue that opinion and support RAFA's complaint expires on Tuesday, February 25.

The entire anti-corruption community in Argentina mobilized this Sunday to demand that the Treasury Attorney's Office - which legally represents the country - "defend national interests in the YPF case in New York."

This is the title of the document published by the Working Group on Corruption Prevention, which urges the Attorney General's Office and YPF "to exercise determination in defending national interests and to make their own the presentation of the NGO Republican Action for Argentina (RAFA) in the case heard in New York where Argentina was sentenced to pay 16 billion dollars to the Burford Fund."

"As is denounced with solid grounds in that presentation, accompanied by evidence of the complaints made in a timely manner by Elisa Carrió and the Report produced by the Financial Information Unit in 2018, that ruling can and must be annulled , because the acquisition of YPF shares by the Petersen Group was based on operations originated - according to serious and well-founded complaints - in serious crimes and the purchasers "paid" their price based on "dividend distributions" of a company that was being emptied with the simple mechanism of simulating non-existent profits," the text continues.

According to the organization, this claim is supported by numerous pieces of evidence - such as the accounting certification presented by the NGO Contadores Forenses - in the case processed in the federal court of Ariel Lijo and backed by abundant documentation presented by RAFA before Judge Preska in New York.

"The $16 billion judgment against Argentina represents three times the current market value of YPF and is the largest judgment ever handed down against a state. If it is enforced, the Petersen Group would receive some $4.8 billion without having invested a single peso in the purchase of YPF, or 90% of YPF's current value," states the statement from the Working Group, which includes, among others, former heads of the UIF Mariano Federici and María Eugenia Talerico , the president of the Buenos Aires City Bar Association, Alberto Garay , and lawyers specializing in public ethics Carlos Negri, Alejandro Drucaroff, Susana Decibe, Marta Oyhanarte, Horacio Moavro, and Osvaldo Pérez Sanmartino.

"In the case before Judge Lijo , precautionary measures were requested years ago for those involved, including Petersen Energía SAU and Petersen Energía Inversora SAU (based in Spain) and the Burford Capital fund (based in the United States), without the court having ruled . Given the new facts that have emerged in recent hours, we urge the Treasury Attorney's Office and YPF to act urgently in defense of national interests , in serious and imminent danger," the statement concludes.

"Milei, as head of state, and Lijo, as judge of the case that I initiated in 2006 for the emptying of YPF, have the obligation to hand over the entire file to the Judge of the United States , in accordance with article 36 of the National Constitution, 2nd part. In which Lijo is also involved. God willing he is not a judge of the Court ," said the leader of the Civic Coalition, Elisa Carrió, on the X network.

Other representatives of the Civic Coalition expressed themselves in a similar way, such as Marcela Campagnoli -very active in the case-, Juan Manuel López, Mónica Frade and Hernán Reyes, but also Javier Iguale (PRO) and the lawyer Alejandro Fargosi, who is highly listened to by the president and who considers the complaint as "a magnificent opportunity for @JMilei to avoid us losing US$ 16,000,000,000 due to the perverse and thieving Kirchnerism. It depends on the Treasury Attorney's Office adhering before February 25. The Attorney's Office must do so YES OR YES WITHOUT EXCUSES ."

Former MP Alvaro de Lamadrid was more emphatic: "As we doubt the good faith of the government, today we are urging the attorney general to denounce the entire corrupt plot or we will consider him another cover-up like Zannini, Cúneo Libarona and Barra," he tweeted, along with a harsh letter addressed to the head of the State's lawyers, the Treasury attorney Santiago Castro Videla.