A Puerto Rico utility contractor ensnared in a federal corruption case is demanding to be paid $216 million for repair work the company did on the U.S. territory’s electrical grid, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Cobra Acquisitions LLC in court papers filed on Monday said that it deserved full payment for its grid repair work ahead of other creditors of the bankrupt Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. Federal prosecutors have charged that some of Cobra’s business in Puerto Rico was obtained through a bribery scheme involving the company’s former president and a high-ranking U.S. official. Cobra didn’t mention those allegations in the filing, saying that the company “rendered all appropriate services” under its contracts and helped Prepa restore power service across the island. Yet, the filing acknowledged that the majority of Cobra’s invoices are being disputed by Prepa, which has raised concerns about the worker head count on some bills and the scope of work on others. The unpaid bills are roughly twice the market capitalization of Cobra’s publicly traded parent company.
