BML Properties Ltd. said yesterday it is willing to work toward a mutually satisfactory resolution of its decade-long battle to recover nearly $1 billion from China Construction America (CCA), after CCA asked a New York court the suspension of the 1.6 billion dollars. payment to BML following a judgment that found CCA to have committed fraudulent acts that ultimately drove BML out of its investment in Baha Mar.

That stay was provisionally granted by a New York court on Monday while CCA appeals the $1.6 ruling.

BML said: “BML Properties Ltd. opposes the CCA’s attempts to delay any enforcement in this case pending the outcome of the appeal, which could take years without adequate bonds or satisfactory guarantees.

“CCA has avoided accountability for its mistakes for a decade. However, BML Properties emphasizes that it is willing to work constructively with CCA and parent company CSCEC (China State Construction Engineering Corporation Ltd.) to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution.”

That $1.6 billion judgment against CCA, which was handed down last month by a New York judge, awarded Sarkis Izmirlian’s BML Properties Limited.

CCA asked for a stay of the ruling, citing in its application that if it tried to begin fulfilling the ruling, the company would become insolvent, which it said threatened the continued operation of two hotels it owns in the Bahamas.

CCA said the decision would be a “grave injustice” to its business and therefore asked the court to order an emergency stay of execution of the judgment.

“The decision imposes $1.6 billion in liability on companies that have no value,” CCA wrote to the court.

“The decision is extremely wrong. But if it goes into effect, the defendants will be insolvent.”

The CCA added: “… Defendants were not in a financial position to guarantee the $1.6 billion judgment.”

The CCA also argued that a stay would not prejudice the judgment already awarded to BML, although the CCA risks significantly increasing its payment to BML if the appeal is too exhausted, given that the 1.6 billion judgment dollars also imposed a daily rising CCA interest rate. to over $400,000.

“The defendants intend to perfect their appeal within eight weeks of the filing of the notice, much earlier than the six-month period provided for in NYCRR (New York Codes Rules and Regulations, and the appeal can be disposed of in a few months,” said suspension, the application explains.

Only last week, CCA appealed the $1.6 billion judgment, which found that CSCEC committed material breaches of the parties’ investor agreement by demanding $54 million from BML to pay subcontractors, but using- o to purchase the British Colonial Hotel in downtown Nassau.

After the ruling, Izmirlian said his side intended to proceed with the execution of the ruling in a “careful and prudent manner.”

Dionisio D’Aguilar, former minister of tourism and aviation and former president of BML, said that CCA should try to settle with Izmirlian’s company because the appeal in the case attracts tens of millions in interest.

D’Aguilar told reporters he was shocked that CCA, CSCEC’s US business unit, is seeking to appeal the New York court’s decision. He said it was in the interest of Izmirlian and the CCA to focus on a solution.