Power Expectations, a company whose temporary power generation contract with Puerto Rico's Electric Power Authority (AEE) was canceled on August 18, is alleging that a lawyer's actions leading to the cancellation may constitute a conflict of interest or "corporate espionage." The company's in-house legal counsel, Abraham Freyre Medina, said in a Sunday press release that actions by attorney Javier Vázquez Morales, of the O'Neill & Borges law firm, need scrutiny. Vázquez Morales contacted AEE officials and Energy czar Josué Colón on behalf of ERock, the parent company of Enchanted Rock, to flag alleged irregularities.
Freyre Medina noted that O'Neill & Borges also advises the Financial Oversight and Management Board (JSF), calling this a clear conflict. In June, Vázquez Morales had emailed officials before the contract's signing, warning of possible fraud by Power Expectations for allegedly wrongly including ERock as a vendor, alongside Power Expectation(s), LLC and Reyes Contractor, LLC, under a 400 MW Aguirre power purchase agreement.
O'Neill & Borges has said its role was limited to serving as ERock's liaison in Puerto Rico at the request of U.S. firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. The AEE canceled the contract on August 18 amid claims of false representations during bidding and negotiation, after the JSF had already withdrawn its approval.