No U.S. Jurisdiction Where Mexican Defendants Allegedly Defrauded Mexican Victim, Despite Financing of Venture Provided by U.S. Corporations

PetrÓleos Mexicanos and Pemex-RefinaciÓn v. SK Eng’g & Constr. Co., 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107222 (S.D.N.Y. July 30, 2013)

In a civil RICO racketeering case, Defendants moved to dismiss the RICO claims as extraterritorial because their alleged conduct to defraud the Mexican government took place in Mexico. Under governing law, the RICO statute does not apply extraterritorially because the statute is silent on extraterritorial reach, meaning the presumption against extraterritoriality applies. Here, the District Court for the Southern District of New York agreed with the Defendants that the claims were extraterritorial because “they allege a foreign conspiracy against a foreign victim conducted by foreign defendants participating in foreign enterprises.” Although American corporations were involved in the financing of the project, it was a Mexican corporation that was defrauded by another Mexican corporation. As such, the Court dismissed the RICO claims.

RETURN TO Fall 2013 Edition

RETURN TO The World in U.S. Courts Home Page

U.S. Laws Discussed

Editorial Board