On August 19, US District Judge Carl Nichols issued a default judgment in favor of ConocoPhillips to collect on a US $8.5 billion arbitration award plus around $22 million for reimbursement of legal costs after the Venezuelan so-called “interim government” failed to appear in court for more than two years. In December 2019, Guaidó’s legal team applied to ICSID for a stay of enforcement on the ConocoPhillips arbitration award and requested its annulment, prompting the court to name an ad hoc committee. For its part, the Maduro government rejected the US federal court’s “unlawful” ruling, stating it violates international law and only seeks to “consummate the delivery of Venezuelan assets to foreign powers through [judicial] procedural frauds.”