Mitsui Affiliate Wins Round in Court Against Shell Entity Claims

A Freeport-McMoRan Inc. unit lost its bid Friday for a court-appointed receiver to run a dissolved US shell entity allegedly set up by Mitsui & Co. to evade environmental liabilities.

A Delaware judge rejected PXP Producing Co.'s request targeting MitEnergy Upstream LLC, which shut down in 2019. “Speculation” that the Japanese conglomerate deliberately engineered the insolvency to place assets out of reach isn’t enough to justify appointing someone to revive the defunct entity, the judge said in a 34-page ruling for Delaware’s Chancery Court.

The case echoes a recurring theme in the elite business tribunal, the leading US forum for ...