Argentina has appealed New York judge Loretta Preska’s order to hand over 51% of the shares of the state-operated energy giant YPF to the plaintiffs who won the US$16.1 billion lawsuit over the company’s expropriation.

The country also requested a stay for the execution of the handover, which has a July 14 deadline, pending the resolution of the appeal.

In two 65-page appeals, filed on Thursday to the Court of Appeals for New York’s Second Circuit, Argentina opposed Preska’s order, arguing that it “violates fundamental principles of U.S. and international law.”

Last week, Preska gave Argentina two weeks to transfer its Class D shares to a global custody account at the Bank of New York Mellon as a partial payment for the lawsuit.

The United States government also opposed the handover in November last year, when an attorney representing the North American administration sent a letter to the judge, saying that forcing Argentina to hand over the shares could endanger U.S. interests as it could prompt foreign governments to attempt similar moves against Washington. Preska, however, did not take the government’s arguments into consideration.

The history and the arguments

The case could be traced back to 2012, when Argentina’s Congress expropriated 51% of YPF shares from Spanish multinational Repsol, which was the majority shareholder at the time, giving the state majority control of the company.

Three years later, Burford Capital bought the trial rights for three companies that owned part of the remaining shares — Petersen Energia Inversora, Petersen Energía, and Eton Park. Burford took Argentina to court, claiming the country had failed to make a tender offer to buy their YPF shares when it nationalized the company, incurring significant losses for them as a result. 

In September 2023, Preska ordered Argentina to pay the plaintiffs US$16.1 billion for breach of contract during the nationalization. The expropriation case is on appeal. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit must now rule on the case, and it could ultimately land in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Argentina’s attorney, Robert J. Giuffra, Jr., from the Sullivan & Cromwell law firm, argued that Preska’s court concluded, over the U.S. Government’s objections, that “there is no execution immunity for foreign-located sovereign property.” 

The appeal said that the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) bars turnover of the shares because they are not located in the United States, are not used for commercial activity in the United States, and were not used for the commercial activity upon which the claim is based. 

“The court rejected foundational principles of international comity, directing the Republic to take action in Argentina that would violate Argentine law,” the appeal added. 

“The Republic is likely to succeed on its appeal of any one of those holdings, each of which would be a sea change in how the U.S. legal system interacts with the rest of the world,” the appeal said. 

“The stakes could not be higher for Argentina.”

Argentina appeals

According to the appeal, if Preska’s order is not stayed, Argentina would “suffer irreparable harm to its sovereignty, and be forced to choose between changing its own domestic laws, violating those laws, or disregarding a U.S. court’s order.” It added that complying with the order “would result in the irrevocable loss of a controlling stake in Argentina’s largest energy company” and that it would result in a U.S. court reversing a lawful foreign expropriation.

Argentina also argued that it would violate the YPF Expropriation Law if the country delivered its 51% stake to the plaintiffs. The law prohibits the “future transfer” of the shares unless the decision is approved in Congress by two thirds of legislators.

The country’s defense team also appealed another order by Preska to hand over YPF shares in another case. The Bahamas-based Bainbridge Fund won a lawsuit against Argentina in 2023 for US$95 million of debt securities that were defaulted in 2001. In May 2024, Bainbridge filed a motion similar to Burford’s, requesting a turnover of YPF shares as partial payment. Preska granted that in May 2025.

On Thursday, Preska also ordered a discovery hearing to be held on July 15 at 10:00 between Argentina and the plaintiffs of the YPF case. The summons responds to a request by Burford Capital, which is seeking to obtain information on state-owned companies and entities such as airline Aerolíneas Argentinas, satellite manufacturer ARSAT, energy company ENARSA, and the Central Bank. Earlier this year, Burford started a discovery process for what it believes are the country’s alter egos in order to seize assets as partial payment.