The fight over Venezuela’s last major foreign asset just got nastier. Lawyers for Citgo Petroleum and its owner, PDV Holding, told a Delaware court this week that Elliott Management’s affiliate Amber Energy shouldn’t even be in the running for Citgo’s parent company—calling its bid “so low it shocks the conscience.”
What began nearly six years ago as a straightforward plan to settle old creditor claims has turned into something else entirely — a slugfest over conflicts of interest, political meddling, and whether a Delaware judge will sign off on a hedge fund cash-grab.
Amber’s $5.9 billion bid—sweetened by a $2.1 billion side deal to pay off Venezuelan bondholders—was inexplicably recommended by the court’s special master, despite a rival $7.9 billion offer from a subsidiary of Gold Reserve. Gold Reserve’s lawyers called the Elliott bid a back-room carve-up that diverts billions from legitimate judgment creditors to bondholders still fighting over the validity of their notes in a New York court.
The drama has turned the Citgo sale into something far larger than a bankruptcy-style auction. Once the U.S. arm of PDVSA—the state oil giant gutted by corruption and sanctions—Citgo was Washington’s last leverage over Caracas. Since 2019, it’s been run by opposition-appointed boards, now forced to watch its ownership decided in an American courtroom.
With accusations of a “defective” process and $170 million in advisory fees now under scrutiny, Judge Leonard Stark faces a no-win choice: bless a deal seen as cheap and compromised, or blow up an auction the U.S. Treasury must still approve. Either way, Venezuela’s crown jewel is slipping away—and nobody’s pretending it’s about fairness anymore.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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