Gulf World bankruptcy trial sidetracked by armed stand off in Cancun
The Dolphin company's prior management allegedly denied debtors and restructuring officials access to the company's Mexican headquarters in Cancun.
Even stranger is the claim that former CEO Eduardo Albor and other personnel seized the headquarters with an armed party.
Albor's counsel released preliminary statements earlier today, telling a very different story.On April 21, counsel for the debtors filed a motion for an order pursuant.
Chief Restructuring Officer Robert Wagstaff and his team from 'Riveron Management Services' describe a lack of overall cooperation from former Dolphin Company CEO Eduardo Albor.
The document then says that after access was briefly gained to control the headquarters, Albor returned with '20 armed individuals purporting to be state police officers,' who forcibly entered and retook possession.
Albor's legal counsel fired back with their own preliminary statements Monday, saying the claims are not factual.
The documents recount an entirely different story, leaving local bankruptcy lawyers shocked at the latest turn of events.
'They were like, hey, judge, hey everybody. You have your facts wrong. We didn't forcibly retake the building. You guys forcibly took the building. You guys should have never been there. And you used municipal police. We actually had legitimate state police as opposed to what they argued or what the debtors argued in court, which was that the state police were like fake state police. And so they make this big deal that it's actually legitimate state police pursuant to legitimate court orders. And then one of the things that they said that I was last reading was basically, they said, oh, and the reason why the debtor says they can't get back into the facility has nothing to do with us or armed guards. It has everything to do with the fact they were legally trespassing on the building because the Mexican court said they don't have the authority to be there right now,' Bankruptcy Attorney Michael Wynn said.
The issue of jurisdiction is the result of precautionary measures for the company's Mexican entities which were put in place by the Concurso Mercantil court on January 28.
This pre-dates the Delaware court filing by nearly two months.
The documents from Albor's counsel now claim Albor was the only party acting within the constraints of the law on April 11.
So what does this mean for Gulf World and the other entities around the world affected by the parent case?
And what about the animals who are now caught in an international legal crossfire that could take a lot of time to mitigate?
'What the state agencies need to remember in these cases is that they have the inherent power to go in and enforce what's known as their police power. Right. The state actors who have the authority to regulate and administer regulations over marine animals, such as FWC or the USDA. They have an exception to the automatic stay that stopped everything. So they have the ability, should they choose to, to get in and get active on these cases, to step in on behalf of the animals. And hopefully, you know, we see some action like that happening, or we see it happen at large. With the secured creditors and lenders taking over because those animals don't deserve what's happening to them right now,' added Wynn.
There was an emergency hearing scheduled Tuesday morning, prior to the preliminary statements released by Albor's counsel on Monday morning.
Wynn says, given the latest jurisdiction battle, that the hearing will likely play out differently than originally intended.
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