An odd fact: Since I posted this little note about Highbury International AVV’s arbitration case against Venezuela, “highbury” has turned into a substantial traffic driver to this site.

So if you’re coming here for that, let me do a bit of the legwork for you: as Miguel pointed out in comments, Highbury’s Aruba registration shows the name of U.S.-born Manuel Fernandez. Reader NC point out to me this Panamanian registration of Ramstein Trading, the other complainant company.

The company secretary of Ramstein is Red Glove Corp. AVV, a company also found in this history of the Las Cristinas mine. According to this statement from 1999, Red Glove had warrants to buy shares of a company I don’t like to write about for $2 apiece warrants that may have been exercised at some point while that company’s stock was way above $2. If this is indeed a case based on the inability of that company to build a mine at the site, it would make three, countem three, ICSID cases over the same* damned property. Gold Reserve and Vannessa Ventures are also scrambling for the same* claim. Makes me wonder if the Bolivarian Republic is aiming for a new legal principle — if they give rights to the same land to enough companies, at some point they may be able to claim that the companies should have known better than to believe in their rights. That place exists to keep lawyers in business.

*I know, I know — Las Cristinas and Brisas are legally separate concessions with somewhat different ore properties. But it’s they are adjoining properties. Same damned exit from the highway, same damned runway, same damned families washing gold dust out of the overlying soils. And I used “damned” in the old-fashioned sense.