Ever since strongman Hugo Chavez assumed power in Venezuela in 1999 and began moving the country toward an authoritarian, socialist model, the collapse of the economy has been offset by income generated from the presence of...more
The New York Court of Appeals Requires an Examination of Venezuelan Law to Assess the Validity of a Note Exchange under Section 8-110 of the New York UCC. The continuing litigation and dispute over the 2016 exchange (the...more
On October 18, 2023, following the signing of an electoral roadmap between Venezuela’s Unitary Platform and representatives of the Maduro regime, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)...more
The issue of whether receipts from the sale of securities should be included in the franchise tax apportionment factor on a gross or net basis may be heard by the Texas Supreme Court after all. There are two cases, Citgo...more
The Rhode Island Attorney General (“Rhode Island”) announced that the office has resolved the State’s lawsuit against Shell, Sunoco, and CITGO (collectively “Defendants”) alleging soil and groundwater contamination with a...more
US DOJ recently announced a settlement of federal and state natural resource damage (NRD) claims asserted by federal and state trustees under the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) and state law against CITGO Petroleum Corporation...more
In order to provide an overview for busy in-house counsel and compliance professionals, we summarize below some of the most important international anti-corruption developments from the past month, with links to primary...more
In a novel and aggressive move likely aimed at garnering goodwill with federal regulators, Venezuelan state-owned entity CITGO Petroleum Company (“CITGO”) has sued its former agent for harm CITGO alleges was caused by the...more
The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Oct. 21, 2019, renewed for three months a license granted to several U.S. oil companies so that they may continue operating in the country until Jan. 22, 2020. Chevron is the only...more
On August 5, 2019, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13884, Executive Order Blocking Property of the Government of Venezuela (EO 13884). EO 13884 is designed to further increase pressure on the Nicolás Maduro...more
On April 22, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve a split between circuit courts over the meaning of a safe berth charter party clause. On March 29, 2018, in United States v. CITGO Asphalt Ref. Co. (In...more
On March 5, 2019, King & Spalding hosted an Energy Forum, titled “Shifting Dynamics in Latin America”, to discuss the political and regulatory changes in Latin America and their impact on investments in energy. Latin...more
All of that SuperBowling seems to have put activist investor Starboard in the mood for some pizza—specifically, former NFL-partner Papa John’s, which has struggled in the wake of the removal of its founder and namesake John...more
Late last week, a California jury found Monsanto liable in the first of a series of cases accusing the Roundup weedkiller maker of causing plaintiff Dewayne Johnson’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, awarding him an incredible $289...more
On February 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit filed an unpublished opinion in the case of U.S. v. CITGO Petroleum Corporation, upholding the ruling of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of...more
Citgo Petroleum received a Valentine’s gift of sorts from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on February 14, in United States v. Citgo Petroleum Corporation. The Court affirmed an $81MM civil penalty assessed by the district...more
On August 24, 2017, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order imposing new sanctions intended to restrict financing connected to the Government of Venezuela. These sanctions supplement existing sanctions imposed by the...more
On August 25, 2017, the U.S. government dramatically increased sanctions on the government of Venezuela. Unlike the Venezuela-related sanctions already in effect, which are list-based and to date have targeted only specific...more
On August 25, 2017, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) imposing economic sanctions related to Venezuela. The new measures prohibit U.S. persons from engaging in certain debt-, equity-, and securities-related...more
• President Donald Trump has issued an Executive Order (the E.O.) imposing additional sanctions with respect to the situation in Venezuela, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has...more
“Iron Mike” Tyson is a controversial sports figure who seems in equal parts loved and loathed by the public. Celebrated for a genuine world-class talent and derided for his behavior in and out of the ring, Tyson has a public...more
As the Petrobras corruption scandal seems to be going strong, we turn our attention to what may be the most corrupt of all the national energy companies, the Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA)....more
It is well-known that the “economic benefit of noncompliance” is one of the factors to be evaluated in setting penalties under the Clean Water Act. Thus, it is not surprising that, after an oil spill at Citgo’s facility in...more
Recently, industry won a major legal victory regarding liability—or lack thereof—for unintentional and indirect bird deaths under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). Unfortunately, that victory could be short lived,...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in United States v. CITGO Petroleum Corp., No. 14-40128 (5th Cir. September 4, 2015), reversed the district court’s convictions of Citgo Petroleum Corp. (Citgo) for alleged...more