"You can see why the count was important to us on its own," he said.
ASYLUM REQUEST
DeMaria, a partner at Tew Cardenas in Miami, said the Treasury bills were swept up in Venezuela's nationalization of the banking industry.
"Our position was, if you've got a beef, take it up with the government of Venezuela," DeMaria said.
De la Pena is no longer on the case. Sorondo said the plaintiffs were in the midst of changing trial attorneys, and he was retained to appeal Scola's order too recently to comment.
The case could return to Miami-Dade Circuit Court, Scola wrote.
"In the event that plaintiffs refile this action in Curacao and attempt in good faith to assert jurisdiction over the defendants and the Curacaoan courts refuse to assert jurisdiction over this case ... plaintiffs shall have leave to refile this case before this court," she wrote.
Mezerhane is seeking political asylum in the United States. He filed a $1 billion lawsuit in 2011 against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez's government in Miami federal court. Based in part on the Alien Tort Statute and the Torture Victim Protection Act, the suit claims Mezerhane suffered arbitrary arrest, psychological torture, restriction on assembly, denial of his right to a fair trial and inhumane treatment after he spent 37 days in jail accused of being an "intellectual author" of the 2004 assassination of a prosecutor.
DeMaria described Mezerhane as "a very significant Venezuelan." He was a partner in the anti-government news network Globovision, which was part-owned by Banco Federal. The government took a minority stake in the network when the bank was nationalized. Mezerhane led an investment group that bought Miami's Diario las Americas earlier this month.
Fraiz's daughter attends Florida International University.
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