In PDV USA, Inc. v. Interamerican Consulting Inc. (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 27, 2026), the court addressed extensive discovery misconduct stemming from the spoliation of electronically stored information in a breach-of-contract dispute involving alleged sham consulting services. In this matter, Interamerican alleged that PDV breached the parties’ agreement and failed to pay amounts owed for services rendered in connection with securing oil supply contracts. PDV denied liability and asserted various defenses. As the litigation progressed, significant discovery disputes emerged, particularly concerning electronically stored information (“ESI”) that PDV claimed Interamerican failed to preserve and produce. The court found that Interamerican reasonably anticipated litigation as early as 2017 but failed to implement a timely litigation hold, resulting in the loss of thousands of relevant emails, texts, and WhatsApp messages. Many of these communications were only uncovered through later government and third-party productions tied to a parallel criminal investigation.
The court found that certain Interamerican custodians’ emails were not properly retained, that automatic deletion settings were not timely suspended, and that preservation efforts were deficient. The court concluded that Interamerican’s explanations for the missing documents were inconsistent and not credible, and that the loss could not be plausibly explained other than by intentional deletion. Although the court concluded that relevant ESI had been lost and could not be restored or replaced through additional discovery, it carefully analyzed whether the loss resulted from an intent to deprive the information’s use in litigation, as required under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e)(2) for the most severe sanctions.
The court ultimately ruled that Interamerican acted with intent to deprive PDV USA of evidence, rejecting the argument that any prejudice was cured simply because some materials were later recovered from other sources. As sanctions, the court imposed an adverse inference instruction and awarded attorneys’ fees, reinforcing that intentional ESI spoliation carries serious consequences and that parties cannot evade preservation obligations through delay, selective production, or reliance on external recoveries.
Reach out to Caitlin Oyler, Counsel at CODISCOVR. Caitlin has over a decade of experience providing high-level advice to clients regarding all phases of the eDiscovery life cycle and managing high-profile document collections, reviews, and productions.
