Nearly six years after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and Oklahoma City-based Mammoth Energy Services won millions in contracts to restore power, the company is demanding payment from the federal government.
The company announced this week its wholly owned subsidiary Cobra Acquisitions, LLC, the firm that performed the power restoration, submitted a certified claim for nearly $379 million to be paid by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The filing was made under the federal Contract Disputes Act.
Mammoth has been in a legal fight to be paid by FEMA and the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority which declared bankruptcy earlier in 2017, the year of the deadly hurricane.
Cobra agreed to mobilize immediately and restore the power grid in Puerto Rico based on assurances from the highest levels of FEMA that it would be paid for its work. Despite having successfully undertaken that work, and despite spending years attempting to work with FEMA and PREPA to collect this debt, more than five years after Hurricane Maria hit, Cobra still has not been paid over $379 million that it is owed.
In making the announcement, Mammoth Energy stated it is hopeful to be paid by FEMA “but Cobra is prepared to exercise its appellate rights, including seeking judicial review, if FEMA refuses to honor its commitment.”
Mammoth CEO Arty Straehla wants to be paid.
“Our team answered FEMA’s call for assistance when it was needed, and we deserve to be paid for the work we did.”
Cobra is represented in this proceeding by Abbe Lowell and Christopher Man from Winston & Strawn LLP.