Clarin Cristina speaks of the vulture funds and admits that the State ceded immunity

Frigate Libertad:

 

Clarin: “Cristina speaks of the vulture funds and admits that the State ceded immunity” 

 

Clarin: “The government of Ghana asked for the release of the Frigate and the judge denied it”

 

La Nacion: “Efforts in the UN to add foreign support against Ghana”

 

·         Clarin reports that the Defense Ministry claims that they called for a change in Frigate Liberta’s course from Nigerai to Ghana because of fear of piracy attacks in Nigerian waters.  Meanwhile, AF reports that Lourdes Puente de Lopez Llovet, chief of military intelligence for the Navy, resigned yesterday.  She’d been named in Pagina/12’s Sunday article assigning all the blame for the episode on the Defense Ministry.

Clarin

Cristina speaks of the vulture funds and admits that the State ceded immunity

 

Thursday, October 18, 2012

 

In what could mean a contrast with the legal strategy that the Argentine government is deploying in Ghana, President Cristina Kirchner admitted yesterday that the country resigned “immunity” of its public assets when it emitted debt under foreign jurisdiction, while clarifying that it had been the decision of previous governments.

 

That affirmation came in an event with candidates for Buenos Aires province when she referred to the detention of the Frigate Libertad in the African country.  “When one sees that some, very few, but powerful, incredibly, put themselves on the side of the vulture funds, but more than just being evil, there is irrationality and a profound lack of love for the country and one’s fellow man,” she said on the matter.  “It’s important to understand loyalty in these days of vulture funds lurking over Argentina, as if the lawsuits were against Cristina or against Peronism.  They are against Argentina, they are against 40 million Argentines,” she said.

 

The President said in that case that Argentina had resigned immunity facing the attachments of national assets abroad, in reference to the debt emissions during the administration of Carlos Menem. This way she justified the problems that the Frigate Libertad is suffering.

 

That statement hits against the brief that was filed by the Defense Ministry before the judge of the Superior Commercial Court, Richard Agyei-Frimpong, who was the one who detained the Frigate by request of the vulture fund NML, taken from U.S. courts.  In that text, Minister Arturo Puricelli argued that the ship is a war ship that arrived in those waters by invitation of the Ghana government.  The judge, however, found that despite it being a military ship, is also is covered by the resignation of immunity that the President pointed out yesterday. 

 

 

Clarin

The government of Ghana asked for the release of the Frigate and the judge denied it

 

Thursday, October 18, 2012

 

By Ana Barón

 

(WASHINGTON) The government of Ghana pronounced itself in favor of the release of the Frigate Libertad from the very beginning, but last week the judge from the Superior Commercial Court, Richard Agyei-Frimpong, didn’t side with that request and decided to detain the Argentine insignia ship. 

 

This explains why the mission by Defense Secretary for International Affairs Alfredo Forti and Eduardo Zuaín of Foreign Relations is so vexing.  In fact, having landed in Ghana after the judge’s decision, if now what they are seeking is a political solution on the issue, nobody in Accra, the capital of Ghana, believes they can achieve one.

 

Two sources confirmed by phone to Clarin from Accra that during the audience in which Agyei established that the detention of the Frigate in the Port of Tema is legal, an official from the Foreign Ministry of Ghana filed what is called an “amicus curae” brief, to be able to give official testimony from the government of Ghana in favor of the ship’s release.

 

“The official from our Foreign Ministry explained that the Frigate Libertad is a war ship and that for this reason it has diplomatic immunity.  That is to say, it was in line with the Argentine position.  But the judge believes that Argentina ceded immunity of the frigate upon emitting the bonds that the plaintiffs now hold,” explained a source that was present during the hearing to Clarin.

 

In effect, the 25-page decision, which Clarin had access to, says that Argentina ceded its sovereign immunity and accepted the jurisdiction of the courts of New York in 1994 by signing “a Fiscal Agency Agreement  with the Bankers Trust Company of New York under which the bonds were purchased by the public.”

 

The ruling accepted a three-page brief filed by Defense Minister Arturo Puricelli where he says that the frigate is a military ship that arrived in the Port of Tema by invitation of the government of Ghana.  However, on that point the judge explained that, while it is a military ship, it doesn’t enjoy immunity.

 

“I don’t believe that our government is trying to go beyond the ‘amicus curae’ that was already filed.  We are in the midst of an election campaign and they accused the government of trying to manipulate the courts.  Our constitution establishes separation of powers,” explained another of the sources consulted by Clarin.  “I don’t know what the Argentine officials are doing.  But I don’t see any political way out for this case,” he added, before predicting that if Argentina doesn’t pay the bail money, the only way out is the Court of Appeals.

 

According to the source, the Court of Appeals is composed of three judges and could take a month to rule.  Then, the case would go to the Supreme Court, where in general cases take at least two months.  Meanwhile, Argentina will have to continue to bear the cost not only of the Frigate but also for the attorneys it has hired.

 

According to calculations, to have the Frigate Libertad in the Port of Tema it costs US$49,000 per day, while a good attorney in Accra collects US$550 an hour.  Argentina hired Lawrence Otoo.

 

The saga of the frigate began on October 2, when it was detained in Ghana at the request of the vulture fund NML, which is trying to collect US$284,184,632.30 plus interest, which on October 1 came to US$ 91,784,681.30, according to the amount established by a court in New York.

 

There is still no date set for a new hearing.  According to sources consulted, the parties are filing new documents.  The attorney for NML just filed one and the Argentine government now has to respond.

 

 

La Nacion

Efforts in the UN to add foreign support against Ghana

 

Thursday, October 18, 2012

 

By Martín Dinatale

 

The government yesterday intensified diplomatic efforts in Accra and in the headquarters of the United Nations (UN) in New York with the goal of undoing the open conflict with Ghana over the detention of the Frigate Libertad as soon as possible.

 

Yesterday, President Cristina Kirchner spoke out for the first time on the issue, in the midst of feverish efforts to reverse the decision of a judge in that African country that decided to support a complaint by the vulture funds and put at risk the future of the ship tied up for the last 15 days in the port of Tema.  “In these days of vulture funds, some think that the lawsuits are against Cristina, in reality they are against 40 million Argentines,” the president emphasized.

 

"When one sees that some, very few, but powerful, put themselves on the side of the vulture funds, one sees there is irrationality and a deep lack of love for country and one’s fellow man,” added the President at an event in the Casa Rosada, without giving any details on the efforts being made to recover the Frigate Libertad.

 

Beyond the President’s comments, the government sought in the UN to extend the support to more than a dozen countries to ask Ghana for a diplomatic solution to the controversy in which Argentina could lose a state asset as considerable as the Frigate Libertad.

 

In parallel, the Argentine mission that traveled to Accra, led by Defense Vice Minister Alfredo Forti, Vice Foreign Minister Eduardo Zuain and Argentina’s ambassador in Nigeria, Susana Pataro, yesterday didn’t get very far in its efforts with the government of Ghana.  “This situation is very complicated and the authorities of Ghana don’t seem prepared to twist the court’s arm,” said a noted source within the Palacio San Martin to LA NACION.

 

There were no more details on those negotiations and the secrecy caused uncertainty in the Casa Rosada.  All indications are that the decision by Judge Richard Adjei Frimpong, of the Commercial Court of Accra, who sided with a request for attachment from the fund NML, will be unchangeable, at least until Argentina pays a US$20 million bail.  But the government is refusing to pay this amount because it would ratify the complaint by the vulture funds, who are demanding US$370 million for debt bonds in default.  

 

The negotiations in Ghana count on the logistical support of Brazil, as that country has an embassy in Accra and Argentine does not.  According to what Brazilian diplomatic sources told LA NACION, that support to the Argentine mission ranges from granting work space to advice on legal and political matters to move things in Ghana.  “Brazil and many Latin American countries will support Argentina in rejecting an unusual complaint,” said a source consulted in Brasilia.

 

But the government of Dilma Rousseff is not the only one playing hard for Argentina.  The Chilean administration of Sebastián Piñera also decided to make efforts at a high level in the UN to modify Ghana’s position.  It put forth the Swiss decision yesterday, rejecting a request from the vulture funds EM and NML to attach Central Bank funds, as an example to gain international backing.

 

The diplomatic route and international pressure will be the only card what Argentina can play to allow Ghana to literally unfasten the Frigate Libertad from the port of Tema.  Foreign Minister Hector Timerman will move things down this path, as he arrives today in New York to participate in the meeting of the UN Security Council.  There, Argentina will be elected to represent Latin America and the Caribbean as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for the period 2013-2014.

 

In that context, Timerman will seek to add countries to the complaint, among them Brazil, Russia, Nigeria, China, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela, Peru and South Africa.  Several of these countries have their sailors among the 300 crew members stranded in the port of Tema.  

 

Switzerland endorses Argentina

The Federal Council, the highest level of the government of Switzerland, yesterday rejected a request by the vulture funds EM and NML, who tried to attach funds from the Central Bank (BCRA) deposited in the Bank of International Settlement (BIS) of Basel, thereby closing a complaint filed by speculators in 2009 before Swiss justice.  These funds are seeking to collect the total value of bonds in default that they hold.