Foley Hoag LLP secured a major victory for the Republic of France, the French Ministère des Armées, and Direction Générale de l’Armement DGA (the “Sovereign Defendants”) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Judge Jon S. Tigar dismissed the claims asserted by plaintiff Aldini AG, a Swiss banking firm, against the Sovereign Defendants and denied leave to amend because he determined amendment would be futile.
 
In 2021, Aldini AG, a Swiss bank, filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of California alleging a wide-ranging conspiracy at the highest levels of the French government to take over the defense-related assets of semiconductor company Dolphin Integration. Aldini, a minority shareholder in Dolphin Integration, alleged that the French government orchestrated Dolphin Integration’s insolvency and a fraud on a French bankruptcy court. Aldini alleged that the purpose of that supposed fraud was to ensure that MBDA France SAS and Soitec SA would acquire Dolphin Integration’s assets. Aldini claimed that the alleged fraud deprived it of an opportunity to bid for Dolphin Integration’s assets in a French bankruptcy sale. Aldini sought more than $700M in damages.  
 
In March 2022, the Sovereign Defendants moved to dismiss the original complaint on numerous grounds, including lack of subject matter jurisdiction, forum non conveniens, comity, and failure to meet applicable pleading requirements. Aldini then filed a First Amended Complaint (“FAC”) adding approximately a hundred new “factual” allegations. In May 2022, the Sovereign Defendants moved to dismiss the First Amended Complaint. The Sovereign Defendants made a facial challenge to the district court’s subject matter jurisdiction and also sought dismissal based on decisions of the French courts in judicial proceedings initiated by Aldini in France, as well as on other grounds.    
 
In a decision issued on March 28, 2023, Judge Tigar dismissed all of Aldini’s claims against the Sovereign Defendants without leave to amend. Judge Tigar held that the Sovereign Defendants are immune from suit under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (“FSIA”). In particular, Judge Tigar held that the commercial exception to the FSIA does not apply because, among other things, the alleged conduct Aldini attributes to the Sovereign Defendants is not commercial in nature; none of the alleged activity attributed to the Sovereign Defendants occurred in the United States; and Aldini had failed to allege a geographic nexus with the United States.  
 
Judge Tigar also held that the expropriation exception to the FSIA does not apply.
 
Team members in Foley Hoag’s offices in New York, Boston, and Paris participated in the defense of the Sovereign Defendants: Daniel Schimmel, Tony Mirenda, Nicholas Renzler, Natalie Panariello, Daniel Zaleznik, Octave Revet, and Sungmin Oh. Foley Hoag collaborated with Asim Bhansali and Kate Lazarus of Kwun Bhansali Lazarus in San Francisco