Crystallex Gets Priority in Proceeds From Citgo Owner Share Sale

A US judge ruled Crystallex International Corp. will get first dibs among Venezuela’s creditors when shares in Citgo Petroleum Corp.’s parent company are sold at auction in October, which would help to pay $1.2 billion awarded to Crystallex as compensation for a gold mine seized more than a decade ago.

“Crystallex was the first creditor” to lay claim to the proceeds of the share sale so it deserved priority, US Circuit Judge Leonard Stark in Wilmington, Delaware, said in a 33-page ruling Thursday.

Shares of PDV Holding, a unit of Venezuela’s state-run oil producer that owns Citgo, will ...