Citigroup faces a new legal action which accuses him of having caused more than a billion dollars of losses by orchestrating and hiding a vast fraud to the detriment of the Mexican petroleum and gas company Oceanografia, now in bankruptcy, ruled on Thursday an American court of appeal.
A panel of three judges from the 11th Federal Court of Appeal of Miami estimated that 30 suppliers, creditors and holders of Oceanografia bonds had sufficiently proven that Citigroup had largely contributed to fraud and that a trial judge had made an error by rejecting this nine -year -old case.
Danielle Romero-Apsilos, spokesperson for Citigroup, refused to comment on this decision. Juan Morillo, one of the complainants’ lawyers, said his clients were satisfied with this decision.
The Banamex subsidiary of Citigroup had granted cash advances to Oceanografia, which provided drilling services to the Mexican public oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), and received interest on these advances.
The complainants, including maritime transport and leasing companies, investment funds and the Dutch bank Rabobank, said that Citigroup had advanced $ 3.3 billion in Oceanografia between 2008 and 2014, while it knew that the company was over-indebted and falsified the signatures of Pemex on authorization forms.
Citigroup subsequently discovered nearly $ 430 million in fraudulent advances and was sentenced to a fine of $ 4.75 million by the American Committee on Stock Exchange and Financial Operations (SEC) in 2018 for internal Banamex checks.
Former Citigroup Director of Citigroup, Michael Corbat said that the bank had dismissed 12 employees, and the Mexican regulatory authorities said that 10 employees of the bank were criminally responsible under Mexican law.
In an 82 -page decision, judge Britt Grant estimated that there were sufficient allegations according to which Citigroup had concealed essential information on Oceanografia, the payments of interest constituting financial incentives.
“Citigroup is one of the most sophisticated financial institutions in the world, and it is difficult to believe that, even if the complainants’ allegations are true, Citigroup was not aware of the activities (Oceanografia),” she added.
The court referred the case before the Federal Judge Darrin Gayles to Miami, who rejected it in August 2023.
The case is entitled Otto Candies LLC et al. c. Citigroup Inc, 11th United States Court of Appeal, n ° 23-13152. (Report by Jonathan Stempel in New York; edited by Richard Chang)
