Law360 (March 1, 2019, 6:51 PM EST) -- Interim Venezuelan President Juan Guaid has urged the D.C. Circuit to strike recent submissions Nicols Maduro's government made in an appeal to nix confirmation of a $1.2 billion arbitral award to a Canadian mining company, saying his political rival has no place in the litigation.
Guaid, represented by
Arnold & Porter, told the D.C. Circuit in a motion to strike on Thursday that it's "conclusively bound" to follow President Donald Trump's decision to officially recognize Guaid as the "rightful" Venezuelan president and to reject the legitimacy of the Maduro government. Guaid’s counsel urged the court to strike the Maduro government's filings in the case made after Guaid declared himself the interim president in January.
"Permitting such a government to appear on behalf of the foreign state in U.S. courts necessarily implies acknowledgment of that government as the legitimate sovereign of the people residing within its borders — an acknowledgement and legitimization that would encroach upon the executive branch's exclusive recognition power," the motion said.
Venable LLP, which
has told the court it is representing Venezuelan president Maduro, filed a brief on Feb. 22 "strenuously" objecting to assertions made by Guaid's attorneys that the Maduro government has no right to participate in the proceedings, in which Venezuela is asking the D.C. Circuit to overturn a lower court order
confirming the award.
The award was issued to Rusoro Mining Ltd. by an international tribunal after the South American nation expropriated without compensation the company's Venezuelan assets under a 2011 nationalization decree.
Guaid argued in the motion on Thursday that only the representatives of a government that has been recognized by the U.S. have standing to sue in U.S. courts or otherwise can avail themselves of the U.S. judicial system. Striking the filings is appropriate, Guaid's motion said, because allowing the Maduro regime to use the U.S. courts "as a platform to broadcast its position" lends that regime a "patina of legitimacy" that may be contrary to U.S. foreign policy.
An attorney for the Guaid government declined to comment. Attorneys for the Maduro government and for Rusoro could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.
In February, Arnold & Porter had registered as a lobbyist and representative of the Venezuelan government under Guaid. The firm had lodged appearances in litigation representing the Maduro government as recently as Jan. 17, just days before Guaid declared himself the interim president of Venezuela on Jan. 23.
That same day, Trump issued his statement officially recognizing Guaid as the interim president. The administration followed up soon afterward with sanctions against Venezuela's state-owned oil company, upping the pressure against the Maduro regime. Additional sanctions were imposed Friday on six security officials of the Maduro government who allegedly blocked recent attempts to deliver humanitarian aid into the country.
The underlying $1.2 billion award in the instant suit was issued by an
International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes tribunal in August 2016 after arbitrators found that Venezuela had failed to compensate Rusoro for seizing its subsidiaries during a move under the Hugo Chvez administration to nationalize domestic gold mining companies in 2011.
The award, which was confirmed by a D.C. federal court in March 2018, was
partially set asidein France in January. The Paris Court of Appeals annulled the damages component of the award, leaving intact the tribunal's finding that Venezuela was liable for the expropriation of the company's investments in the country.
Rusoro has said it intends to appeal the decision.
Rusoro is represented by James E. Berger and Charlene C. Sun of
King & Spalding LLP.
Venezuela is represented by Stephen K. Wirth and Kent A. Yalowitz of Arnold & Porter. Venezuela, on instruction from its current and acting Attorney General Reinaldo Muoz Pedroza, is represented by Moxila A. Upadhyaya and Michael B. MacWilliams of Venable LLP.
The case is Rusoro Mining Ltd. v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, case number
18-7044, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
--Editing by Nicole Bleier.