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By Joyce Hanson · 

A D.C. federal judge has opted not to vacate a nearly $44 million arbitral award issued after the Dominican Republic terminated a landfill concession, enforcing the award instead with an order saying the court has adopted a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation in full.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly’s order on Tuesday denied the Dominican Republic’s petition to vacate the $43.6 million arbitral award, which favoured Jamaican Canadian billionaire businessman Michael Lee-Chin. At the same time, Judge Kollar-Kotelly granted Lee-Chin’s cross-petition for confirmation of the award but denied his request for attorney fees.

In her opinion, also entered Tuesday, Judge Kollar-Kotelly said she agreed with U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui’s February 2025 report and recommendation, despite the Dominican Republic’s objections to it later that month.

“The court has reviewed Magistrate Judge Faruqui’s report and recommendation de novo,” the opinion said. “Upon this review, and after consideration of the parties’ submissions, the relevant legal authority, and the entire record, the court shall adopt Magistrate Judge Faruqui’s well-reasoned report and recommendation in full and deny the Dominican Republic’s petition to vacate [the] arbitration award.”

The opinion went on to say that the magistrate judge correctly concluded there was no evidence that the arbitral tribunal failed to investigate allegations of underlying fraud. It said the Dominican Republic did not show that the award should be vacated for misconduct under the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.

Also, according to the opinion, the tribunal correctly determined that Lee-Chin was a qualifying investor under the dispute resolution provisions in a treaty between the Dominican Republic and the member states of the Caribbean Community.

A lawyer for Lee-Chin, Richard C. Lorenzo of Hogan Lovells, said in an emailed comment Wednesday, “Our client is very pleased with the decision and expects that the Dominican Republic will promptly comply with the final award and the district court’s order and finally fully satisfy the award and meet its legal obligations.”

Counsel for the Dominican Republic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Michael Lee-Chin, chairman and CEO of privately held Ontario investment company Portland Holdings Inc., kicked off the arbitration in April 2018 before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. Lee-Chin, who is a Jamaican national, hit the Dominican Republic with an arbitration claim of more than $300 million after the landfill he invested in was seized by the government for alleged environmental misdeeds.

Lee-Chin claimed that the government improperly expelled him in 2017 from operating the landfill in the municipality of Santo Domingo Norte, which his company, Lajun Corp. SRL, had operated for more than a decade. Government authorities took complete control of the landfill and the land on which it sits, he said.

More than five years later, the international tribunal concluded that the Dominican Republic had illegally expropriated Lajun’s right to operate the landfill. The tribunal majority ordered the Dominican Republic to pay Lee-Chin $4.89 million as damages for failing to treat him fairly and a further $38.7 million for the expropriation, plus interest.

But the Dominican Republic objected in February 2025, arguing that there was no agreement to arbitrate between the Caribbean nation and the businessman. The country urged the D.C. federal court to reject the magistrate judge’s recommendation to enforce the $44 million arbitral award.

“Whether a valid arbitration agreement was actually formed between the parties is always a matter to be decided de novo by the courts without any deference to the arbitrators,” the Dominican Republic said. “The magistrate’s report contains no such analysis of whether the parties here formed an agreement to arbitrate.”

However, Judge Kollar-Kotelly disagreed, saying Tuesday that Magistrate Judge Faruqui rightly determined that the award should not be vacated.

“To start, the court agrees with Magistrate Judge Faruqui’s finding that the parties agreed to have the arbitral tribunal determine the arbitrability of Lee-Chin’s claims,” according to the opinion. “The relevant treaty provision applicable to the tribunal’s jurisdiction employs language that clearly and unmistakably delegated the question of arbitrability to the arbitrator.”

The Dominican Republic is represented by Kevin Arthur Meehan and Marwa Farag of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.

Lee-Chin is represented by Richard C. Lorenzo, Daniel E. González and Hans H. Hertell of Hogan Lovells.

The case is Dominican Republic v. Michael Anthony Lee-Chin, case number 1:23-cv-03821, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.