Posted on 11/23/2012 8:50:56 AM PST by Lorianne
Argentina will have to pay $1.3bn to hedge funds that refused to restructure their debts after the country's 2001 default when it makes regular payments to its restructured bondholders in December, a US court has ordered.
The ruling, made late on Wednesday in New York, raises the possibility that Argentina will default once more, and if upheld represents a major chink in the armour of sovereign immunity against creditors that has largely reigned in international law for almost a century.
US District Court Judge Thomas Griesa first made the order earlier this year, which after appeals was unexpectedly largely affirmed by the US federal appeals court on October 26.
The case was then sent back to the original judge to clarify certain aspects, such as how much was due to the funds, led by Elliott Associates, an aggressive hedge fund that has made suing countries its hallmark.
"It is hardly an injustice to have legal rulings which, at long last, mean that Argentina must pay the debts which it owes," Judge Griesa said in an updated opinion. "After 10 years of litigation this is a just result."
More controversially, the judge largely reaffirmed the extent that third parties would be affected by his order.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Pirate of the Caribbean: Billionaire New York hedge funder seizes Argentine navy’s $10m flagship
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2940785/posts
Uh oh. The Plastic Queen might have to request more money from her paymaster in Venezuela.
I don’t think Hugo has the funds to pay for her ‘revolution’ as well has his. He just got ‘re-elected’ and I’m sure that was very expensive. I’ve always felt Argentina should have gone very broke two or five years ago. Postponing the inevitable makes the whole thing worse. Kinda like what’s going on here and in Europe. We need bold leadership, but we are stuck with 0 and Boehner.
Argentine default seems to happen every 10 years without fail.
Why anyone buys their debt is beyond me.
Argentina will complain to Washington, Washington will seize the money “pending review”, the hedge funds will receive nothing. The review will pend for years.
There’s an obscure economic lesson in here; Argentina was at one time the world’s tenth wealthiest nation. And they still have massive natural resources.
...probably has an off-shore account that just got a deposit of a few million $$$.
Good point. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was an expression in Paris, “As rich as an Argentine.”
Argentina is a case study in how bad government can ruin a country for a hundred years and longer. We now have a chance to create our own case study of how government can wreck an economy.
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