Mexicans! accuse! Yahoo! of! using! corrupt! judge! to! dodge! $2.7bn! payout!

Yahoo! and its law firm have been sued by two Mexican companies that are accusing them of conspiring to dodge the shock $2.7bn award handed out to them in a 2012 Mexican court case.

Worldwide Directories and Ideas Interactivas claim that the Purple Palace and law firm Baker & McKenzie got a senior Mexican judge on their side and used him and other court personnel to “corrupt the appeals process and overturn the judgement”, Reuters and Bloomberg reported.

A Mexican appeal court threw out the ruling against Yahoo! over contracts in the country in 2013, overturning a decision that agreed with the companies’ allegations of breach of contract and lost profits from a deal on a yellow pages listings service.

The appeal court decided that Yahoo! Mexico should only have to pay $172,500 and also awarded Yahoo! Mexico $3m on its counter-claims.

But Worldwide and Ideas are accusing Yahoo! of winning the appeal by getting a corrupt judge to meet in secret with the appellate court judge and “intimidate” her into changing the damages so dramatically.

They claim to have sworn statements from witnesses to the misconduct, including the original trial judge who gave out the whopping damages in the first place.

Yahoo! told Reuters that the latest case was totally baseless.

“This is a frivolous attempt to revive interest in a meritless lawsuit, and we will vigorously defend against these baseless claims,” a spokeswoman said.

Baker & McKenzie did not respond to a request for comment from either Reuters or Bloomberg. ®