Eight countries appeared before a U.S. court as amici curiae (friends of the court) in favor of Argentina in the multimillion-dollar litigation filed in New York courts against the South American country over the 2012 nationalization of the oil company YPF, official sources confirmed.
The United States, Israel, and Ecuador each submitted their filings to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York on Thursday, while Chile, Italy, Uruguay, Romania, and Ukraine jointly submitted their filing, according to documents accessed by the EFE news agency.
In addition to these countries, this Thursday also backed Argentina as amici curiae the United States Chamber of Commerce in Argentina (AmCham, by its English acronym), the Institute of Banking Policy, and the Association of U.S. Bankers — the latter two jointly — and the Argentine province of Chubut, a shareholder of YPF along with other hydrocarbon-producing provinces.
In 2015, after purchasing litigation rights from the Argentine Petersen group — a former minority shareholder of YPF — the English firm Burford Capital and the U.S. firm Eton Park sued the Argentine State in New York courts over the nationalization of the oil company in 2012.
The basis of the suit was that the Argentine State violated a YPF statute article which provides that if someone purchases more than 15 % of the company, it should make the same offer to all shareholders — something that in that case did not happen.
In 2023, the senior judge in the New York district, Loretta Preska, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and ordered the Argentine State to pay them 16.1 billion dollars. Argentina Shale On June 30 of this year, Preska ordered Argentina to surrender its 51 % stake in the company to the litigating firms.
Argentina appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which on July 15 issued a temporary administrative stay of Preska’s order pending the process of argument submissions by the parties.
The countries and institutions that submitted to support Argentina are asking the court to overturn Preska’s order to hand over the shares.
In their submissions, the countries defended the principle that the assets of a sovereign State — particularly those located in its own territory — are immune from enforcement by foreign courts.
