Venezuelan Oil Co. Fights Asset Garnishment In $217M Award

Venezuela's state-owned oil company asked a Florida federal court on Tuesday to vacate orders garnishing its assets to satisfy a $217 million judgment
over the state-sponsored murder of a lawyer, arguing the company was never served properly and is not an arm of Nicolás Maduro's regime.
At a hearing in Miami, Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, said the plaintiffs — the family of Fernando Albán, who was killed by the Maduro regime in 2018 — failed to properly serve PDVSA, which only found out about the proceeding after several writs of garnishment had been issued
against it.

"After the liability determination had been made, after the July 1, 2024, order had been entered, after several other writs had been issued, then PDVSA learned through informal channels that its rights had been trampled on, and they were in jeopardy," PDVSA's attorney Claire DeLelle told the court.

And even if service had been proper, the plaintiffs have failed to show that PDVSA is an instrumentality or arm of the Maduro regime, according to Danielle Tarin, who also represents the oil company. She said U.S. Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres' finding on this issue relied entirely on a determination by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, but she called that a preliminary determination meant as a preemptive block to protect the company's assets for the benefit of the Venezuelan people.