New York court will give more time to the government and its allies to speak against the ruling of Judge Griesa; US$1.3 billion is in play

La Nacion
More arguments from the country against the holdouts
New York court will give more time to the government and its allies to speak against the ruling of Judge Griesa; US$1.3 billion is in play

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

By Silvia Pisani | LA NACION

WASHINGTON.- When there are only two weeks left before the public and final hearing with the so-called “vulture funds” over the payment of US$1.33 billion, the preview battle over “speaking time” for each of the parties seems to be opting in favor of Argentina.

According to what was indicated to LA NACION last night, the judges seem to have given their ears to the generalized protest and will be ready to concede some more minutes to the scarce quarter hour of speaking that they initially granted for each party.

As such, the distribution of time will give more chances for the argument line that rejects the payment formula – overall and how it affects intermediary institutions – which the lower court judge Thomas Griesa set with the ruling – now stayed – from last November.

Added to the 15 minutes of speaking that is already granted to the Argentine defense will be another 14, distributed in equal parts between the group of bondholders that accepted the debt swap and the Bank of New York, the entity which acts as payment agent.

For the plaintiffs, as such, the initial time of 15 minutes will be extended by another five.

In recent days, the Court of Appeals received protests from the so-called “affected third parties” for not having the chance to speak. By confirming this distribution of time, their arguments will be, from different paths, headed to the same objective of trying to put into doubt the viability of Greisa’s ruling.

"This is something that makes us content,” said sources close to the Argentine side to LA NACION.

Yet possibly not so much for the plaintiffs. Both NML Capital Management and Aurelius criticized the abundance of speaking in favor of the goal of rejecting their pursuit of Argentina.

"Since the ruling of October 26, 11 parties have come forward in Argentina’s favor with 14 briefs totaling 392 pages,” both funds said days ago in a joint brief.

But if it manages to orient the speaking time in its favor, Argentina has, however, other reasons for concern in the long litigation.

Complaint for Nacion

In recent hours, Judge Griesa insisted in his demand that Banco Nacion reveal the manner by which Argentina manages its funds and assets abroad.

For some time Griesa has been demanding that, but our country’s authorities refused by arguing that they are “impeded by law” in revealing that kind of information.

The rejection is not based – Argentina says – on its own legislation, but on those of the countries where the bank operates its branches.

For the judge, however, Argentina’s position “is not demonstrated” and for that he again demanded that kind of information.

The judge, which officials of Cristina Kirchner’s government refer to as a “serial attacher”, is seeking assets in order to collect on the debt that the speculative funds are claiming.

The clash of arguments and the complaints are part of the court battle with which the holders of debt bonds that didn’t accept the swap of their papers (the so-called holdouts) are demanding total payment. The government rejects that position because – it says – it would set off a cascade of additional lawsuits for more than US$43 billion.

The hearing for the 27th was set by the Court of Appeals in New York as a first step toward deciding what to do with the ruling of Judge Thomas Griesa that ordered payment to the holdouts. Once the arguments are over, the decision could come at any moment.