Venezuela’s PDVSA Ordered by US Court to Pay Defaulted Notes (1)

Venezuela’s state-controlled oil company can’t use US sanctions as an excuse for not paying what it owes on $348 million in defaulted debt, a federal appeals court in New York ruled.

A three-judge panel of the court in Manhattan Wednesday upheld lower court rulings that Petroleos de Venezuela SA had to make good on a set of promissory notes. The ruling is a win for the debt holders, Houston-based Dresser-Rand Co., a unit of Siemens AG, and Contrarian Capital Management.

PDVSA had argued that payment was made impossible by the sanctions against the government of Venezuelan President ...