LexBlog (LexBlog Ecuador)

Our last post addressed how INTERPOL notices can be reissued using the case of Luis Guaman as an example.  Mr. Guaman’s Case: Legal Conflict Between Jurisdictions In Mr. Guaman’s case, after he fled to Ecuador, the U.S. obtained a Red Notice and requested his extradition to New York, where he is wanted for the murders...

An outbreak of hepatitis A has spurred the FDA to issue a public alert about fresh-frozen blood clams imported from Ecuador and sold under the La Serranita brand. The outbreak is under investigation by the New York State Department of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The first illness related to the clams...

Once again, frogs and toads are making headlines defending their constitutional rights. In a successful Rights of Nature (RoN) case in Ecuador, the Jambato (Atelopus ignescens) – a toad with an orange belly and black back – has now stopped an infrastructure project in Angamarca. RoN cases are often told as David vs. Goliath stories:...

The Ecuadorian government’s financial crimes agency froze the bank accounts of several Indigenous and environmental groups, using secret intelligence information in an apparent effort to silence protests, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, commented that the measures in question constitute a misuse of anti-money laundering...

This prior post discussed the many FCPA (and related) enforcement actions concerning Ecuador’s Seguros Sucre S.A. (“Seguros Sucre”), an alleged state-owned insurance company and “instrumentality” of the Ecuadorian government. Among the enforcement actions were criminal charges announced by the DOJ in 2022 against Esteban Eduardo Merlo Hidalgo, Christian Patricio Pintado Garcia, and Luis Lenin...

As detailed below, in the past approximate five years, there have been several FCPA enforcement actions against companies and individuals involved in the insurance sector in Ecuador. Tysers Insurance Brokers Limited and H.W. Wood Limited (2023) As highlighted in this prior post, the DOJ alleged that “Tysers and H.W. Wood were engaged in a conspiracy the...

“No safe level of lead in children’s blood has been identified. CDC does not use the term “elevated blood lead levels” when recommending what actions to take based on a child’s blood lead level (BLL).” CDC FDA’s onsite inspection of the Austrofoods facility in Ecuador has ended. However, the FDA investigation of the elevated lead levels in...

The U.S. Department of Homeland security announced yesterday the implementation of a family reunification program for Ecuador, allowing U.S.-based Ecuadorians to sponsor their immediate family members abroad to legally immigrate to the United States.  Family reunification parole (FRP), as the program is formally known, allows beneficiaries to enter the United States and apply for work...

On 30 Oct. 2022, China’s legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, ratified the “Treaty between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Ecuador on Judicial Assistance in Criminal Matters” (中华人民共和国和厄瓜多尔共和国关于刑事司法协助的条约), which was signed by representatives of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing on 12 Dec. 2018.     Cover...

Please join Greenberg Traurig and Pérez Bustamante & Ponce (PBP) on May 11 from 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. (GMT-5) for an overview of the investment opportunities for companies and individuals in Ecuador. GT Shareholder Oscar Stephens will moderate an interactive panel discussion on: Recent legal and political developments Main considerations from a foreign investor’s perspective...

2021 marked a new chapter for arbitration in Ecuador: after re-joining the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes Convention in June, Ecuadorian Executive Decree No. 165 in August introduced Regulations to add to and improve the existing legal framework for arbitration as it results from the Ecuadorian Arbitration and Mediation Law (“AML”).  The AML,...

Researchers have highlighted the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in cheese in Ecuador. In Ecuador, the impact of listeriosis on public health is unknown because it is not a reportable disease. Soft cheese is consumed in most urban households in the country. A total of 260 artisanal cheese samples were collected from March to September 2018 in street...

The Ecuadorian National Assembly has unanimously approved the Organic Law on Data Protection, which President Moreno is expected to sign.

On July 31, 2020, Judge Caproni in the Southern District of New York denied an emergency motion filed by certain bondholders for a temporary restraining order that would have halted efforts by the Republic of Ecuador (“Ecuador”) to restructure $17.4 billion of its sovereign debt based on allegations of securities fraud arising from statements made...

Ecuador is considering a GDPR – like privacy law. “A massive data breach in Ecuador has sparked a new push to pass data protection legislation that would mirror the European Union’s privacy regime. The National Assembly is debating a bill that allows citizens to access, correct, eliminate and oppose the use of their personal data...

Ecuador is seeking to pass a data protection bill in the wake of a massive data breach that resulted in the personal data of up to 20 million people being made available online.

On February 19th, Ecuador’s Anti-Corruption Secretary, Iván Granda, and Minister of Foreign Affairs & Human Mobility, José Valencia, hosted the first meeting for the creation of the International Anti-Corruption Commission. Attendees included the diplomatic corps, members of multilateral organizations, and civil society representatives. Granda indicated that the three objectives of the Commission

On September 11, 2018, Jose Larrea, a Miami-based financial advisor, pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy charge for his involvement in a scheme to bribe officials at Ecuador’s state-owned oil company, PetroEcuador.  Larrea admitted to wiring more than $1 million in funds to conceal the bribes, which an oil services contractor paid to PetroEcuador...

On May 18, 2018, after receiving a notice from the Government of Ecuador terminating that country’s bilateral investment treaty with the United States, the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Trade Representative announced the termination in the Federal Register.  The treaty has been in force since 1997. Under the treaty’s own terms, Ecuadorean nationals and...

Ecuador is seeking to revive trade with the US and reinvigorate tourism to and investment in Ecuador by the US. During a visit led by Foreign Trade Minister Pablo Campana Sáenz in the second week of September, Minister Campana highlighted a number of key trade priorities for Ecuador. He encouraged the revival of the U.S.-Ecuador Trade and...

Illinois State Court Issues First Settlement under Biometric Law On December 1, 2016, the Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois approved what is being reported as the first settlement under the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act, 740 ILCS 14/1 (BIPA or the Act).  BIPA provides a private right of action against companies that fail to...

A recent report published by the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) calculated that Latin American countries have lost more than US$98 billion in tax revenues simply  due to transfer pricing manipulation. Latin American countries are paying close attention to such reports, leading to changes in their local regulations or...

The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, has temporarily dropped an inheritance tax bill that was causing massive protests.  The bill would lower Ecuador’s inheritance tax threshold from U.S.$68,000 down to U.S.$34,500.  President Correa argues that the lower cutoff would promote the redistribution of wealth.  The opposition claims that this change in tax law would be...

There is an interesting column in Bloomberg Business about the ongoing Chevron/Ecuador litigation. It discusses a pending appeal before the Second Circuit over Chevron’s use of civil RICO  to enjoin the enforcement of the Ecuadorian judgment against them. The column discusses, albeit briefly, the possible ramifications of a ruling allowing defendants to enjoin judgments by alleging...

Asylum Access Ecuador won a landmark victory last week when Ecuador’s Constitutional Court struck down key provisions of a restrictive refugee law. Since 2012, Decree 1182 has imposed serious barriers for refugees seeking safety in Ecuador, including a requirement that refugees file paperwork within 15 days of arrival – often just days after receiving a...

The saga involving Chevron/Ecuador oil drilling and litigation is a fascinating and factually intense story of mass tort litigation at its most extreme. The overall events and recent trial have it all – rampant oil production, oil in the ground in places and amounts that should not exist, arguments over what is “pollution,”  jockeying between...

Judge Lewis Kaplan entered judgment today in favor of Chevron in the long-running dispute concerning environmental liability for oil pollution in the Oriente region of Ecuador. The court, after a bench trial, found that plaintiffs’ attorney Steven Donziger and his team engaged in fraud and corruption in obtaining a $9.5 billion judgment in Ecuador. Judge...

The Chevron/Ecuador wars continue to rage, including a judgment enforcement effort in Ontario, Canada. The latter effort resulted in a ruling indicating Canada’s courts may be open to judgment enforcement based on seizing a parent corporation’s shares in a subsidiary corporation that was not involved in the underlying litigation. Mondaq includes a helpful summary article...

As the trial continues to unfold in New York in Chevron’s RICO lawsuit against plaintiffs’ lawyer Stephen Donziger — amid accusations of judicial bribes, ghostwritten opinions, and sex scandals — it is worth noting what happened in Ecuador this week. On Tuesday, Ecuador’s high court, the National Court of Justice, affirmed the underlying judgment against...