The course of the trial for the expropriation of YPF began in April 2012, during the administration of the former President, convicted and imprisoned, Cristina Kirchner. At that time, the defendant announced her intention to nationalize YPF.
Petersen had purchased 25% of YPF's shares from Repsol on February 21, 2008, during Cristina Kirchner's government. They first paid US$1.1 billion for 14.9% of the shares and then US$2.2 billion for the remaining 10.1%. Meanwhile, the Eton fund had purchased 3.04% of the shares in November 2010 for US$458 million.
On April 16, 2012, Cristina Kirchner announced her intention to take over YPF and on May 7 of that same year, the public interest law came into effect in Argentina, which left 51% of YPF's shares in Repsol's hands as subject to expropriation and under temporary occupation by the Argentine State, a situation that led Petersen to bankruptcy in Spain, where it had obtained the loans to acquire the oil company's shares.
The expropriation of YPF was completed in May 2014, after the National State paid the Spanish company Repsol US$5 billion in sovereign bonds.
At that time, YPF's then-intervenor Axel Kicillof refused to make the public tender offer for all the shares when he expropriated the 51%, which was established and predetermined by the oil company's own bylaws.
At that time, Kicillof stated before the National Congress that "We're not going to pay what they say, but the real cost of the company. The fools are those who think the State has to be stupid and buy everything according to YPF's bylaws."
Today, the judge of the Southern District of New York, Loretta Preska granted a request from the plaintiffs Burford and Eton Park, who claimed 51% of YPF's shares as part of the payment for the $16 billion judgment. The ruling was due to a lawsuit filed after Cristina Kirchner and Axel Kicillof's decision to expropriate the national oil company.
