Rattagan, one of the founding partners of Rattagan Macchiavello Arocena who previously served as co-head of the firm’s mergers and acquisitions group and its natural resources and energy group, says that he began working for two of Uber’s Dutch subsidiaries in 2013 to lay the groundwork for a Buenos Aires launch, which included getting the process started for registering Uber’s Argentina subsidiary, having Rattagan listed as the legal representative and using his law firm as Uber’s legal domicile ahead of an eventual launch in the city.
But over the next couple of years, Uber kept much of its actual launch plans secret from him, including that it had hired alternate counsel in the country, that it planned to launch despite an incomplete corporate registration and that it planned to refuse to comply with local authorities, Rattagan alleges.
After Uber launched in Buenos Aires, local officials and taxicab unions became incensed and staged protests outside Rattagan’s law firm, the media vilified him and his firm, and Argentine authorities raided his office and charged him with crimes including tax evasion, he says.