Opinion ID: 2832150
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the agency or instrumentality has waived its

Text: immunity from attachment in aid of execution or from execution either explicitly or implicitly, notwithstanding any withdrawal of the waiver the agency or instrumentality may purport to effect except in accordance with the terms of the waiver . . . . 23 independent subsidiary. However, a court might find that property held by one agency is really the property of another.52 Therefore, Bancec recognizes a statutory “presumption that a foreign government’s determination that its instrumentality is to be accorded separate legal status” will be honored.53 But this presumption of separateness may be rebutted by evidence establishing an alter‐ego relationship between the instrumentality and the sovereign state that created it. Specifically, the presumption may be overcome and an alter‐ego relationship established if: (1) the instrumentality “is so extensively controlled by its owner that a relationship of principal and agent is created”; or (2) the recognition of an instrumentality’s separate legal status would work a “fraud or injustice.”54 As we previously noted, “both Bancec and the FSIA legislative history caution against too easily overcoming the presumption of separateness.”55 52 Bancec, 462 U.S. at 627–28 (quoting H.R. Rep. No. 94‐1487, at 29‐30 (1976), reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. 6604, 6628‐29). 53 Id. at 628. 54 Id. at 629 (internal quotation marks omitted); see Letelier v. Republic of Chile, 748 F.2d 790, 794 (2d Cir. 1984) (“[A] foreign state instrumentality is answerable just as its sovereign parent would be if the foreign state has abused the corporate form, or where recognizing the instrumentality’s separate status works a fraud or an injustice.”). Letelier, 748 F.2d at 795; see also Seijas v. Republic of Argentina, 502 F. 55 App’x 19, 22 (2d Cir. 2012) (non‐precedential summary order) (Bancec sets forth a “strong presumption” that an instrumentality has a “separate legal identity”). 24