The Argentine government is blasting Elliott Associates for a series of subpoenas it calls an “ongoing campaign of harassment.”

Courthouse News Service

Argentina Takes on Angry Hedge Fund

 

August 30, 2012

 

By David Lee

 

DALLAS (CN) - Argentina claims in court that subpoenas from a hedge fund about the country's massive bond default dating back to 2001 are part of an "ongoing campaign of harassment."
Argentina filed a motion to quash in Federal Court.

Cyprus-based NML Capital Ltd. is trying to depose nonparty oil companies Apache Oil Corp. and EOG Resources, both of Houston.
Argentina claims the subpoenas are part of a larger "fishing expedition" by which NML is trying to evade the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act's execution limits, by "demanding extensive, burdensome discovery" about Argentina.

"However, the FSIA, which provides the sole basis for U.S. courts to exercise jurisdiction over foreign states and their property, clearly applies here and does not permit the type of overbroad discovery requested by NML," the motion states. "Indeed, even apart from the FSIA, NML's subpoenas are improper under Federal Rule 26's standard requirements that discovery must not impose an undue burden and must be limited to matters that are relevant."

 

 

FINalternatives

Argentina Attacks Elliott Oil Co. Subpoenas

 

August 30, 2012

 

The Argentine government is blasting Elliott Associates for a series of subpoenas it calls an “ongoing campaign of harassment.”

The two sides have been fighting for years over Argentina’s 2001 default, with Elliott refusing to participate in the country’s restructurings and demanding that it be paid in full on bonds it purchased on the secondary market. Argentina has fought back with claims of sovereign immunity; following a defeat in the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month, Elliott has taken its fight back to the lower courts. And it is in the U.S. District Court in Dallas that Argentina is taking issue with subpoenas sent to two Houston-based oil companies, subpoenas that the country says are part of a “fishing expedition” and a “demanding, extensive, burdensome discovery.”