Argentina will reject the “contempt” motion filed by the Burford fund, which benefited from a $16 billion ruling in favor of Judge Loretta Preska, within the deadlines set by the magistrate. The filing will be presented on February 19, according to the schedule established by Preska, as confirmed to the Argentine News Agency by sources from the National Treasury Prosecutor's Office. Yesterday, Burford filed a request with the judge to declare Argentina in contempt and sanction it for failing to deliver the required documentation concerning chats and emails between national officials. The fund seeks to establish the link between YPF and the National State (alter ego). “Argentina has fully and amply complied with the discovery process, including the delivery of more than 113,000 pages of documents and the testimony of various Argentine government officials,” sources from the Prosecutor's Office stated. Likewise, they added that the motion constitutes the most recent attempt by the litigation financier Burford Capital to “harass the Republic through intrusive and disproportionate discovery requests,” as part of what its CEO has told investors is a strategy to “sand in the gears” of Argentina's economic recovery. From the Argentine defense, they also pointed out that the request for sanctions must be read in the context of the recent judicial advances achieved by Argentina, which have deteriorated Burford's procedural position. Among these precedents, they mentioned the appeal hearing of the $16 billion condemnation ruling, which led to a drop of over 20% in the fund's stock value, the stay granted by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on the order to deliver YPF shares, the express support of the United States, Israel, and more than a dozen countries and international organizations, and the rejection of the recognition of the sentence in the Irish courts. “In this scenario, Burford's procedural tools to improve its position are being limited, and it now resorts to a contempt motion, even though Argentina is complying with discovery,” sources stated. “It is a harassment strategy to pressure the country and force a negotiation from a position it no longer has.”
Beyond this filing by the Burford fund, the Prosecutor's Office indicated that Argentina “will continue to comply with the discovery process within what is permitted by the Constitution and Argentine laws, while the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit analyzes the appeals filed against the unprecedented orders issued by the District Court in this case”.
