Venezuela Creditors' Portal

NEW YORK, 21st October 2019 –  Red Tree investments, the holder of USD 182 million defaulted loans issued by PDVSA, filed on 18th October 2019 a request for a status conference to solve the case as soon as possible.

PDVSA received a stay on all proceedings for 120 days on the 6th of May, and is now asking for a second one. According to Hogan Lovells, who is representing PDVSA in this case, the oil company is unable to properly defend its interests since the Guaidó government “does not yet have full access to the personnel and documents of the Venezuelan government and its instrumentalities”. The defense also argues that Red Tree’s claim that it will be prejudiced by a second stay because of the progress of some creditors of Venezuela pursuing judgments against PDVSA is “highly speculative and premised on a number of unreasonable assumptions”, partially because Red Tree asserts that the OFAC is “more likely to grant a specific license to attach, seize or execute on PDVSA property to a party that has obtained a final judgment on account of its claims since review of the application is riper at that juncture” while Venezuela views this as a speculative statement with no evidence to back it.

On the other hand, Red Tree emphasizes that the case is quite straightforward (a clear contract between two parties that has been breached) and that PDVSA has not addressed some of its arguments, such as the fact that “the evidence already submitted by Red Tree in this case is sufficient for this Court to make a determination as to Defendants’ liability” and that “whatever documents that Defendants want access to
related to the transactions at issue in these cases should be in the files of their current and past counsel”. In view of the circumstances, Red Tree requested a Status Conference, arguing that it would be an effective mechanism to present the contradicting positions and place the court in the best position to rule on this issue.