The World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has awarded the mining company Crystallex $1.202 billion due to Venezuela’s unfair expropriation of its investment in the Las Cristinas mining.
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Crystallex filed its Request for Arbitration before ICSID’s Additional Facility on February 16, 2011 pursuant to the Agreement between the Government of Canada and the Government of the Republic of Venezuela for the Promotion and Protection of Investments.
The Award, which was rendered on April 4, 2016, upheld Crystallex’s claims that Venezuela breached Articles II(2) and VII(1) of the Treaty by failing to accord Crystallex’s investments in Venezuela fair and equitable treatment and by unlawfully expropriating those investments.
As a result of these breaches, the Tribunal has ordered Venezuela to pay damages currently amounting to $1.386 billion, based on a value for Crystallex’s investment in the Las Cristinas mine of US$1.202 billion on 13 April 2008 – the date when an environmental permit was denied by Venezuela – together with pre- and post-award interest from that date.
Among other things, the Tribunal criticized Venezuela’s Ministry of the Environment for its “arbitrary†and “non-transparent and inconsistent conduct†in connection with its denial of an environmental permit.
The Tribunal stated that it “cannot but conclude that the Permit denial letter and the Romero Report on which the first appears to be based are so fundamentally deficient that, to the eyes of a reasonable third person, they ‘surprise a sense of juridical propriety’.â€
Venezuela, the Tribunal concluded, “frustrated Crystallex’s legitimate expectations, engaged in arbitrary conduct in denying the Permit and rescinding the [Contract it had signed with Crystallex], and committed several acts lacking transparency and consistency.â€
The Tribunal therefore found that Venezuela’s “overall conduct vis-à -vis Crystallex, thus violated the standard and caused all of the investments made by Crystallex to become worthless.†■