top
Americas
Americas
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

Argentina Debt Payments Blocked by US Court

by Anya Lewis-Meeks
The Argentine government announced Thursday that it transferred funds to the Bank of New York Mellon to pay the 92% of bond holders who restructured after Argentina's 2001 default.
The Argentine government announced Thursday that it transferred funds to the Bank of New York Mellon to pay the 92% of bond holders who restructured after Argentina's 2001 default. Reuters reports that Judge Thomas Griesa blocked the restructured debt payments until a settlement is reached on $1.65 billion that Griesa ordered be paid to hold-out creditors.

"We are in the middle of a ping pong match between Argentina and the hold-outs," stated Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious debt relief group, Jubilee USA Network. "Unfortunately, as this battle continues in the courts, Argentina faces another default."

According to Griesa's ruling, Argentina must pay all creditors on June 30th, including hold-outs who won a court ruling to be paid in full. Because of a built-in 30-day grace period, Argentina now faces a July 30th deadline to resolve its dispute with the hold-outs or face a technical default. Griesa, concerned that Argentina is circumventing his orders, demanded all parties appear in courtFriday morning.

If Argentina pays hold-out creditors the approximately $1.65 billion Judge Griesa has ordered it to pay, it would face claims from other hold-outs that would approach $15 billion, half of Argentina's reserves. If Argentina pays the hold-outs, it could also face lawsuits from the 92% of creditors who did not hold out seeking to be paid in full as well. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) noted this week that those claims would exceed $120 billion.

"Argentina's in a tough place but will likely find a way through this situation," said LeCompte, who serves on expert groups for UNCTAD. "I'm really worried about how this court precedent is promoting predatory behavior and will hurt debt restructurings for poor countries."

Read a history and timeline of the case.
http://www.jubileeusa.org/truth-about-debt/vulturefunds/argentina.html

Read Jubilee's USA's filing urging the Supreme Court to take case. http://jubileeusa.org/fileadmin/13-990__-991_Amici_Brief_filed_3-24-14.pdf

Jubilee USA Network is an alliance of more than 75 US organizations, 400 faith communities and 50 Jubilee global partners. Jubilee's mission is to build an economy that serves, protects and promotes participation of the most vulnerable. Jubilee USA has won critical global financial reforms and more than $130 billion in debt relief to benefit the world's poorest people. http://www.jubileeusa.org
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by Workers Revolution
The U.S. Courts in the service of the banking industry and U.S. political interests. Corporate U.S.A. is the name for this piece of real estate in North America. When the U.S. corporations go belly-up the U.S. Court system is obliged to protect them from national and international creditors. Don't you fall behind on your credit card bill though.
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$110.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network