Argentina fears default after American court ruling

[Judi Lynn]

6. The vulture capitalist who devoured Peru – and now threatens Argentina

The vulture capitalist who devoured Peru – and now threatens Argentina

Could Paul Singer destroy another economy?

Nikhil Kumar
Friday 23 November 2012


With his trimmed white beard and rounded metal spectacles, Paul Singer might come across as a slightly miffed professor, his lips pursed and one eyebrow arched a touch higher than the other.


But the balding billionaire behind the New York hedge fund group Elliott Management is in fact one of Wall Street's reigning titans, presiding over a business that is once again being portrayed as a greedy "vulture" for its attempts to coerce Argentina into shelling out billions to settle debts that it thought it had sorted out years ago. The result could be a disastrous debt default.

"To pay the vultures is not only unfair but illegal in terms of our internal rules," the country's economy minister, Hernan Lorenzino, said this week after a US court ordered Buenos Aires to come up with $1.3bn (£800m) that, in the eyes of the judge, it owed one of Elliott's affiliates and other hedge funds including Aurelius Capital Management.

The funds own Argentinian bonds affected by the country's debt default in 2001. But unlike the majority of investors, they held out for full payment when the country offered in 2005 and 2010 to settle those debts by agreeing to release part of what was due under the original contracts.

Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has always held the debt to be illegitimate and says the country is not obliged to pay investors who held out when it reorganised its debts,

More:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-vulture-capitalist-who-devoured-peru--and-now-threatens-argentina-8347577.html

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Paul Singer[/center]