Rivada claims Altan won Mexico Red Compartida award ‘through improper and perhaps criminal means’

Rivada Networks officials acknowledge that the bond was not part of its bid submittal, but they claim alternative guarantees were made at the time of the bid submission. Days later, the Rivada consortium provided a fully compliant bid bond—before Mexico’s government evaluators needed it, according to Rivada representatives.

Rivada’s legal filing to secure the Keith subpoena reveals the problems the Rivada consortium had in securing the bid bond.

“Two days before the bid was due, BanaMex—which was to deliver a $55 million letter of credit on Rivada’s behalf, in connection with Rivada’s bid—made new and unreasonable demands on Rivada as conditions for its issuance of the required letter,” the legal filing states. “This was the first time that BanaMex had raised the commercially unreasonable demands, even though BanaMex and Rivada had been working on the letter of credit for the previous month.

“Due to BanaMex’s new demands, Rivada was forced to submit its bid without BanaMex’s letter of credit, on October 20, 2016.”

Rivada’s Carney said the bond arrangement with BanaMex was complicated by the fact that the Mexican antitrust officials ruled that Dish Network could not have a significant role on the Rivada consortium—a ruling that resulted in Dish Network exiting the Rivada consortium. The Dish Network decision was made within four days of the bid-submission deadline, according to the legal filing.

“The bonding strategy involved Dish,” Carney said. “So, when Dish was kind of knocked out [of the Rivada consortium], we had to come up with a different strategy for securing the bond.”

Another bond strategy could not be executed by the bid-submission deadline, which is why the Rivada consortium bid included alternative financial guarantees instead of a bond, Carney said. The bond was submitted 10 days after the bid-submission deadline, according to Rivada.

In addition to these incidents, Rivada claimed last month that its customized wooden boxes—presumably thought to be carrying Rivada’s Red Compartida bid—were stolen while being transported in Mexico City. Although initial reports indicated that no weapons were “openly brandished,” the legal filing for the Keith subpoena states that the boxes were “hijacked at gunpoint” weeks before the bid-submission deadline.