The surprise announcement that US law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges’ would wind down operations in late October demonstrated just how quickly a legal institution, and its credibility, can unravel.

Squire Patton Boggs (SPB) now faces scrutiny of a different kind: allegations about its role in the handling of evidence against Javier Alvarado-Ochoa in Spanish criminal proceedings.

On 30 October 2026, Alvarado-Ochoa sued SPB, accounting and advisory firm Berkowitz Pollack Brant and one of its principals, Robert C. Aldir, in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Alvarado-Ochoa is a former Venezuelan Vice Minister for Electricity and former head of Bariven, the procurement subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA.

The Florida complaint centers on documents used against Alvarado Ochoa in Spanish legal proceedings in 2020. He alleges that SPB and Berkowitz Pollack Brant, working for PDVSA, helped assemble, authenticate and transmit documents that he says were fabricated or altered.

He argues that the professionals at both firms knew this, or ignored warning signs that should have prompted further investigation. These are serious allegations which, if found to be true, could have implications for SPB, Berkowitz Pollack Brant and Robert C. Aldir.

During the Spanish proceedings in 2020, he challenged the authenticity of these documents. In November of that year, the investigating judge in Spain ordered PDVSA to produce the original procurement authorizations so that the copies shared with the court could be compared against the originals. The originals have still not been produced.

Alvarado Ochoa’s complaint focuses on two documents which laid at the heart of the allegations against in Spain. The first, known as the “Tradequip Authorization Document”, concerned a transaction worth $17,323,454.49.

He says PDVSA’s procurement system, SAP, allowed him to approve only transactions worth between $18.6 million and $27.9 million, automatically directing smaller purchases to lower-ranking officials. The Tradequip transaction fell below that threshold, meaning, he argued, that the system would never have generated or routed the authorization for his approval.

The Tradequip document allegedly bore what appeared to be Javier Alvarado-Ochoa’s signature but lacked the system-generated NAF notation beneath it. According to the complaint, authentic PDVSA authorizations carried this notation beneath signatures to show each signatory’s approval authority.

The filing claimed this is particularly conspicuous because, among hundreds of procurement documents in the case file, the Tradequip authorization was allegedly the only one where signatures lacked the system-generated NAF indicators. On top of this, Alvarado Ochoa claimed that he had no dealings with Tradequip.

The second, a “Northland authorization document”, allegedly combined the letterhead of Houston-based PDVSA Services Inc. with seals, stamps and entity designators belonging to PDVSA Services B.V. in the Netherlands. Alvarado Ochoa says this produced an impossible sequence of approvals and stamps, inconsistent with the company’s operational practice.

Alvarado Ochoa’s allegations raise a serious question. The complaint links SPB to the accountants’ work through a 2020 PDVSA submission, which stated that the firm’s Miami office engaged the forensic accountants and determined the form their work would take. It further alleges that SPB had access to PDVSA’s records and understood the SAP system and its NAF authorization limits.

Therefore, if SPB and the forensic accountants had access to genuine procurement records and understood these controls, why were the alleged anomalies not identified before the documents were used in criminal proceedings?

Alvarado Ochoa’s complaint brings serious claims against all defendants, including fraudulent misrepresentation, civil conspiracy, abuse of process, Florida civil RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act), aiding and abetting fraud and tortious interference. The accountants separately face professional-negligence allegations.

The case is at an early stage, and how the court will rule remains unknown. But for SPB and Berkowitz Pollack Brant, the allegations bring unwelcome scrutiny to their involvement in Spanish proceedings six years ago.