MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Judge Griesa summons new hearing on case of hedge funds holding Argentine bonds

“We hold that Argentina breached its promise” said the Appeals Court

US Judge Thomas Griesa summoned a new hearing at New York Court over the case of investment funds against Argentina. The judge agreed with both parts a hearing on Friday to define the following steps after the US Appeals Court ruling issued on October 26.

The ruling recognized that Argentina discriminated against bondholders who refused to take part in massive debt re-structuring in 2005 and 2010 by deciding to pay them later than bondholders who agreed to participate.

The unanimous three-judge appeals court panel said that in conducting the restructurings, Argentina violated a provision in the bonds that required it to treat bondholders equally, even if they chose to hold out and did not take part in the massive debt restructuring in 2995 and 2010.

Argentina claimed that upholding Griesa’s rulings would undermine its debt agreements, trigger a new financial crisis in the republic and make it impossible for countries including Greece and Spain to restructure their debt in the future.

“Nothing in the record supports Argentina's blanket assertion that the injunctions will plunge the Republic into a new financial and economic crisis,” Circuit Judge Barrington Parker wrote for the panel agreeing with Judge Griesa that with more than 40 billion dollars in foreign reserves, Argentina has the ability to pay the holdouts

“We hold that Argentina breached its promise,” the appellate court said, summarizing a 29-page ruling that could make it difficult for Argentina to use the US financial system unless it complies.

The appeals court sent the case back to Griesa’s court to clarify how a payment formula set by the judge is intended to work and to determine how the orders apply to intermediary banks and other third parties.

NML Capital Ltd. is the investment fund that impounded the Argentine Navy training frigate ARA Libertad which remains retained in Ghana. The parent company of NML is billionaire Paul Singer's Elliott Capital Management

The case is NML Capital Ltd. v. Republic of Argentina, 12-00105, US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Manhattan).