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| Caribbean-Latin America | |||||
| Despite initial ruling, Venezuela seeks to silence U.S. website | |||||
| 2016-03-01 | |||||
Is a U.S. website causing the collapse of the Venezuelan economy? That’s what Venezuela’s Central Bank seems to want to prove as it pursues legal action to shutdown www.dolartoday.com. The bank blames the website for runaway inflation and a plummeting currency.
In October, the Central Bank took the fight a step further by filing a suit in Delaware, where the website is registered, accusing the owners of racketeering, false advertising, and illicit enrichment. According to the Venezuelan Central Bank, the website has been driving the country’s triple-digit inflation and currency devaluation by faking exchange-rate data. “Defendants are deliberately misrepresenting and effectively manufacturing a market — a phony, distorted market for the exchange of bolivares into dollars and vice-versa, with the aim of lining their pockets with ill-gotten gains,” the suit reads.
The website’s owners say they don’t set the price of anything, that they simply report the exchange rate that’s being offered in Cúcuta, Colombia. “We haven’t done anything wrong, we’re just saying what is true about the exchange rate in the parallel currency market,” said one of the defendants, who asked to go by the pseudonym of Benjamin for fear that the government might hound his family or friends in Venezuela. Collapsing oil prices have meant Venezuela has fewer greenbacks coming in. And in a nation where almost everything is imported, dollars are in high demand. While the government’s official exchange rate is 10 bolivares to the dollar, and its (theoretically) free-floating SIMADI rate is 205 to the dollar, the black-market rate is running almost five times higher. On Friday, the U.S. District Court in Delaware handed the defense a short-term victory, saying the Central Bank had not provided sufficient evidence that harm had been done. But the court also gave the bank seven days to amend its complaint. Ricardo Gonzalez, a defense attorney with Greenberg Traurig in Miami, said the ruling proves that the bank’s clams have no foundation. “The allegation that the mere publication of an exchange rate in the U.S. causes inflation in Venezuela — it’s pretty far-fetched,” he said. Even so, Fox, who represents the Central Bank, said his firm would be filing the amendment before week’s end, saying it was simply a matter of drawing clearer lines between the harm that DolarToday had caused to the Venezuelan people and the bank itself. “We intend to address that distinction,” he said. The defendants “have wreaked massive harm on Venezuelans in general and the Central Bank specifically with the misleading and fraudulent manner [they] have represented the exchange rate,” Fox said.
“We’re worried, because the Venezuelan government knows that we haven’t done anything wrong,” he said. “They’re hoping that through a lawsuit, and the process of discovery, that they can identify our collaborators and shutdown our operations in Venezuela.” The International Monetary Fund is predicting Venezuela’s inflation could hit 720 percent this year. And the shortage of even basic goods is raising tensions in the country. To complicate matters, the newly emboldened opposition has been floating ideas of how to oust Maduro. Under the circumstances, the administration needs as many distractions as possible. “We’re absolutely sure that the government will try to keep finding ways to wear us down,” Benjamin said. | |||||
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #7 I always preferred: |
| Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 2016-03-01 20:43 |
| #6 https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamrandallfox Office Managing Partner at Squire Patton Boggs Los Angeles, California Law Practice Previous U.S. Court of Appeals Education Cornell Law School  Linkedin Summary I am the managing partner of the Los Angeles office of Squire Patton Boggs. As part of my firm's global Litigation Practice, I focus on false advertising and unfair competition, particularly in the food and beverage industry. In addition, I have an extensive background addressing a much broader range of disputes, including intellectual property and other commercial cases, as well as environmental contamination, toxic torts, and catastrophic injuries. My trial experience spans the nation, trying to verdict high-profile, high-stakes controversies. I also maintain an office in New York. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2016-03-01 12:18 |
| #5 Squire Patton Boggs Law firm company Squire Patton Boggs is an international legal practice with 44 offices in 21 countries including New York, Washington D.C., London, and Cleveland. Wikipedia Headquarters: Cleveland, OH Founded: 1890 Revenue: 870.5 million USD (2014) Profit per equity partner: 840,000 USD (2014) Number of offices: 44 |
| Posted by: 3dc 2016-03-01 12:13 |
| #4 Bolivarians, Frank. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2016-03-01 11:25 |
| #3 Squire Patton Boggs - paid whores for Commies |
| Posted by: Frank G 2016-03-01 10:27 |
| #2 Birth defects, warts, issues of blood, signs, omens, secret capes, moons, chants and poetry, burning crosses, bones, blogs.... BEWARE !!!! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-03-01 08:33 |
| #1 Didn't the Canadian government try something similar to embarrassing or uncomfortable stuff that got moved to an American site too? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2016-03-01 08:28 |