Other Contingencies - Litigation

3 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2017

Notes to Financial Statements

Note 7 - Other Contingencies - Litigation

In December, 2011, we initiated civil legal proceedings against Hycarbex and others in the High Court of Islamabad, Pakistan. Our pleadings with respect to the 2.5% carried working interest positions in the Sanjawi and Zamzama North concessions sought a registration of those interests with the Government of Pakistan and simultaneously sought the imposition of an injunction preventing the transfer of the working interest in those concessions until the registration can be effected, thereby protecting our interests. In our pleadings with respect to the Yasin concession and the right to receive 18% of the gross production revenues, our pleadings sought a referral to arbitration based upon ownership of, in effect, a 25% carried working interest to which is attributed 18% of gross production revenues and the right to receive pertinent records and data, the appointment of a receiver to both protect and cause disbursement of the 18% of gross revenues since the inception of production in April, 2011, and the imposition of an injunction against the transfer of the working interest in the Yasin concession. The Court immediately issued two injunction orders preserving the status quo as to the Company’s interests in each of the Yasin, Sanjawi and Zamzama North petroleum concessions.

On March 27, 2012, the Islamabad High Court issued its final order (later clarified as to certain arbitration procedures by a clarification Order dated April 4, 2012). The Court directed the parties to proceed to arbitration in London, UK under the ICC Rules of Arbitration and further reaffirmed the continuation of the pending temporary injunctions against Hycarbex’s potential transfer of interests in the concessions prior to final resolution in the arbitration forum. Our application for the appointment of a receiver was neither granted nor denied, but was instead deferred by the Court to the arbitration forum. Hycarbex appealed the March 27, 2012 Order asserting that litigation should not have been initiated by American Energy without first going to arbitration, asserting that our claims to 18% of gross production revenues were premature (despite already having made some payments toward that production interest) because a “commercial discovery” had not yet been declared, and asserting that the injunctions had the effect of enjoining all of the working interest, not just a portion. American Energy countered with an appeal that the Court should reconsider the application for a receiver due to an existing arbitration rule which would prevent the arbitration forum from granting interim relief of that type, irrespective of the merits of such an application. These appeals have become moot by virtue of the ICC Partial Final Award described below.

On April 10, 2012, pursuant to the terms of the March 27, 2012, Islamabad High Court Order, we filed our claim with the International Chamber of Commerce (“ICC”) International Court of Arbitration seeking an order which voids, ab initio, the original 2003 Stock Purchase Agreement under which Hycarbex’s parent company acquired the stock of Hycarbex (and thus the underlying Yasin concession owned by Hycarbex) and in conjunction therewith, seeking the recovery of any financial dividends or advances which may have been made by Hycarbex to its shareholders based upon our assertions in the claim that Hydro Tur, Ltd., the original purchaser of the Hycarbex stock under the 2003 Stock Purchase Agreement, fraudulently misrepresented to American Energy that “no current or past shareholders, officers and/or directors of American Energy or Hycarbex have any interest, direct or indirect, in the ownership of Hydro Tur, Ltd.”

On April 15, 2015, the ICC Arbitration Tribunal rendered its Partial Final Award in the pending arbitration proceedings which declared that the November 9, 2003 Stock Purchase Agreement between the Company, Hycarbex and Hydro-Tur, which was amended on February 16, 2004, and December 15, 2009, is void ab initio and of no legal effect on account of the fraud and misrepresentations of Hycarbex, Hydro-Tur and Hycarbex-Asia and that the Company is thus the 100% owner of the common stock of Hycarbex relating back to the original Stock Purchase Agreement date of November 9, 2003. In connection with its findings, the ICC Arbitration Tribunal ordered that the register of shareholders for Hycarbex be corrected to reflect the Company as the owner of 100% of the common stock, that Hycarbex and Hycarbex-Asia take any and all steps necessary to effect the rectification of the register of shareholders of Hycarbex to reflect the Company as the owner of 100% of the common stock, and that Hycarbex and Hycarbex-Asia bear all costs of the arbitration proceedings, including the Company’s legal costs, which costs and fees are to be fixed by the ICC Arbitration Tribunal in a subsequent award after submission of the total costs and fees by AEGG. The ICC Arbitration Tribunal dismissed Hydro-Tur’s application for costs. The April 15 Award made moot certain of the pending actions in Pakistan due to the recovery of ownership of 100% of the stock of Hycarbex.