The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, plans to create a tax to disburse the compensation of US$16 billion (R$77 billion) that a federal court in New York ordered in September that the country pay to the vulture fund Burford Capital for the expropriation of the company oil company YPF, in 2012.
The new Argentine government, presided over by Javier Milei since December 10, had asked judge Loretta Preska for a 30-day extension to appeal the decision in a letter sent to her on December 19. But three days later, the court refused to grant Argentine authorities an extension to post a $16 billion guarantee and to file appeal documents.
The New York federal court also ruled that Argentina must meet the deadlines of January 10 to present the guarantee and January 30 to appeal the sentence.
Faced with this situation, Milei announced this Tuesday night (26), in an interview with the television channel LN+, which will create a tax named after the current governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, who, as Minister of Economy in Cristina Kirchner's government (2007-2015), promoted the expropriation of YPF. “There is a problem, because we don't have the money. We don't have US$16 billion to pay. We do have the 'willing to pay', the willingness to pay”, stated Milei.
“One of the ideas we are working on is to create the 'Axel Kicillof tax' (…), so that all Argentines will have to pay a certain amount of dollars every year thanks to the monstrous mistake that Kicillof made,” he added.
In 2012, Argentina purchased 51% of YPF shares from Spain's Repsol without making a public takeover offer to the rest of the shareholders, who claimed to have been harmed.
The vulture fund Burford Capital, owner of the Petersen Group's assets, considered that the government should pay US$16 billion, but Argentine authorities estimated that the compensation should be US$5 billion (R$24 billion).
The legal process over the nationalization of YPF began in 2015, following the bankruptcy of the Petersen Group, which had taken ownership of YPF. Burford Capital, a fund specializing in this type of litigation, bought the bankruptcy of Petersen Energía Inversora and Petersen Energía, the two companies created by the holding company's owners, in Spain in order to be able to file the lawsuit in New York. (With EFE Agency)
#Milei #plans #create #tax #named #governor #Buenos #Aires