Mexicana’s ex-workers sue PC Capital for fraud (FoxNewsLatino)

July 7, 2011

Mexicana de Aviacion’s former employees have sued PC Capital, which was unable to come up in March with the $200 million it offered for the bankrupt carrier, for fraud.PC Capital committed alleged fraud against “more than 8,000 workers” of Compañia Mexicana de Aviacion, or CMA, “by delaying the airline’s sale for more than four months via an offer that lacked economic resources,” a group calling itself the Coalition of Workers of Mexicana de Aviacion said.
The Attorney General’s Office should arrest PC Capital chief Arturo Barahona Oyervides and other members of the firm “who turn out to be responsible” for the alleged crime, the coalition said.Mexicana’s sale was cancelled in March after PC Capital was unable to come up with the funds needed to buy the carrier and subsidiaries Click and Link.
PC Capital failed to pay the money on March 1, the day the purchase agreement with Tenedora K, which took control last August of 95 percent of the stock of holding company Nuevo Grupo Aeronautico, or NGA, which owns Mexicana de Aviacion, Click and Link, expired.
PC Capital won the bidding for the bankrupt carrier in November, offering to pay $200 million for Mexicana’s assets and to restructure operations, eliminating about 75 percent of the airline’s 8,000 jobs.Mexicana, which had been one of Mexico’s two leading airlines, stopped operating on Aug. 28 along with sister budget carriers Click and Link.
The carrier is trying to negotiate a restructuring of its debt of about 20 billion pesos ($1.72 billion), of which a large portion is owed to workers.The investment group planned to have Mexicana de Aviacion resume flying before March, operating 30 planes, down from its previous fleet of 112.
The carrier had received its operating and security licenses after conducting test flights mandated by regulators.Barahona is the leader of the supposed investment group that “tricked” workers and officials for months only “to later say it did not have money,” the coalition said.Workers will continue to stage protests outside hotels owned by Grupo Posadas, Mexicana’s former owner, to draw attention to the “supposed theft by its owner, Gaston Azcarraga, to the detriment of thousands of workers, since Barahona Oyervides is one of his representatives,” the coalition said.
The ASPA pilots union filed a lawsuit against Grupo Posadas last week, alleging violations of securities laws in the airline’s management.
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