GLENCORE PdV sues oil traders for conspiracy

The lawsuit filed on behalf of PdV US Litigation Trust by New York-based law firm Boies Schiller Flexner accuses Lukoil, Trafigura, Colonial, Glencore, Vitol and other oil trading firms and individuals of paying bribes since 2004 to secure rigged oil sales and procurement contracts.

The lawsuit names almost three dozen companies, banks and individuals as active participants in an ongoing conspiracy to steal confidential PdV information, rig bids, fix prices and suppress competition.

"PdV's crude export tenders were rigged to guarantee the trading firms below-market prices, and PdV's rigged import tenders fixed prices at above-market levels, generating billions of dollars in profits for the schemers and billions in losses for PdV," an executive with direct knowledge of the case told Argus.

The ongoing alleged scheme is believed to have cost PdV over $15bn in losses since 2004, but that figure could prove to be conservative as the plaintiff's attorneys pursue an aggressive document discovery process against all of the named defendants.

PdV US Litigation Trust was constituted on 27 July 2017 "pursuant to the laws of the state of New York…for the specific purpose, among other things, of pursuing recovery for defendants' misconduct," according to the suit filed in Miami.

http://www.argusmedia.com/news/article/?id=1641358

Luiz Alvarez: (an Ivan Glasenberg London General)

Gustavo Gabaldon at Glencore (a Stamford regular).

It's about time...