Economy Minister Axel Kicillof said the federal government was “expectant” about a decision by the United States Supreme Court that could bring same relief to Argentina today if it favours the South American position in its billionaire dispute against vulture funds.
The US Supreme Court is likely to decide today whether it accepts Argentina’s appeal against bondholders suing the nation over its defaulted bonds more than a decade ago.
“If the (US) Supreme Court decided to take the case, it is would be a more favourable scenario but if it doesn’t there are different scenarios,” Kicillof told reporters this morning.
“We are expectant about the Court’s decision. It has the opportunity to consult (the administration of President Barack) Obama and the democrat government has in many ways expressed positions that coincide a lot with Argentina’s judicial strategy; in that case, the scenario would be more favourable,” the minister explained.
Facing a negative scenario, the head of Argentina’s economic affairs said the Cristina Fernández de Kirchner administration will then have to address other legal possibilities if the case, for instance, falls back again on New York appeals judge Thomas Griesa.
Argentina is challenging a court judgment ordering it to pay $1.33 billion to NML Capital Ltd and other holdout bond investors or face a potential default if it refuses to do so. These so called “vulture funds” refused the country’s 2005 and 2010 debt restructuring.
“This is a war based on the ruin that neoliberalism left us and that we have been fighting so that the financial system does not keep winning,” Kicillof affirmed, considering the dispute a “judicial adventure” that involves “lawyers and bankers that want countries to bankrupt by buying a worthless bond” they then demand to be paid off with “1,600 percent of profitability.”
buenosairesherald.com