RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Looking betterWithout access to private insider information, I cannot elaborate since only Art Brown knows the verdict of the March 17th court case in Trinidad. I can only speculate as to the outcome based upon my knowledge of the facts as presented by reading previous press releases and surmising just how any reasonable judge and jury ought to rule on this lawsuit.
Art has played and kept his cards close to his vest, and Colin may not know anything until the result is made public. Even if I did know, I don't think it would be wise to trade based upon information which has not yet been disclosed to public shareholders. However, many of us already know that the day of reckoning is at hand for the defendants, and the only thing that might save their bacon before the dangling sword of Damocles is cut by Art, is an out of court settlement rather than face a severe enforcement of a ruling as instructed by the judge in this case.
In any event, Art is in a very powerful position here, and unless the defendants pony up a fair settlement, then they will have to face the music or the firing squad. Since the government of Trinidad is trying to develop and promote their domestic oil industry, then the authorities in this country would frown upon those who break the law and resort to skullduggery, thievery and illegal expropriation of assets without first legally obtaining the property title. There is nothing in my opinion which should have precluded Maxim's legal right to property and revenue from producing wells for the past several years, and the amounts of oil produced and the price per barrel will have to be quantified. The matter of compensation for legal costs may have to addressed in a separate lawsuit, or combined with an out of court settlement.
Even if Jasmin was the legal operating company during the interim, they had an obligation to remit Maxim's portion of revenues, and I believe that Maxim had the right to recapture all of it's expenditures incurred before any payouts would have accrued to the defendants. Therefore, I believe that significant revenues were diverted to the wrong parties for this reason, and because of this I also think that their remaining percentage interest in the block should be forfeited to Maxim if they cannot or will not pay the damages.
Somehow, this seems eerily similar to old west syle claimjumping of gold mines by miners, except this was not done at the point of a gun. I expect there will be a lot of "chatter" on this board soon, and your comments about this post are welcome.