07 August 2014

Not My Choice, but It's a Start

This post was corrected on 26 January, 2016.  

Dr. Dirk Markus has no connection to Aurelius Capital Management LP, the vulture fund in question.  

He is  the CEO of Aurelius Equity Opportunities, which is a completely unrelated financial firm, and is not involved with the attempted looting of Argentina in any way.

My apologies. 

Argentina is going to the International Court of Justic in the Hague:
Argentina has asked the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague to take action against the United States over an alleged breach of its sovereignty as it defaulted on its debt.

Argentina defaulted last week after losing a long legal battle with hedge funds that rejected the terms of debt restructurings in 2005 and 2010.

A statement issued by the ICJ, the United Nation's highest court for disputes between nations, said Argentina's request had been sent to the US government. It added that no action will be taken in the proceedings "unless and until" Washington accepts the court's jurisdiction.

The US has recognised the court's jurisdiction in the past, but it was not immediately clear if it would do so in Argentina's case.
I guess that this is one avenue to take, though I think that the Argentinean investigation into possible violation of their laws by the vulture funds would likely be a better course of action:
Argentina's markets watchdog on Monday launched an investigation into what it believes may have been unlawful speculation by holdout creditors whose litigation against the country for repayment of their defaulted bonds pushed it into a new default last week.

………

The head of Argentina's Securities Commission Alejandro Vanoli said it had asked its U.S. counterpart for information on trade of Argentina's sovereign debt and credit default swaps (CDS), derivatives used to insure against default.

The watchdog wanted to check if holdouts who rejected Argentina's restructuring in the wake of its 2002 default held or traded CDS while they took part in negotiations with Argentina which could trigger a default.

"The use of insider information, which would be the case here, and market manipulation are crimes in Argentina, they are crimes in the United States, and they imply economic sanctions and eventually criminal sanctions," Vanoli told a news conference.
While they might prevail at the ICJ, it is by no means a certainty, and it is also an open question as to whether or not the US government will obey that foreign court.

On the other hand, a prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich, and once they have file for extradition of the vulture funds senior staff.

Additionally, they could put a bounty on their heads, and if they were to promise a few million dollars for the apprehension and rendering of these people back to Argentina, you could be guaranteed that the pucker factor would skyrocket.

Additionally, it would be legal under US law, which grants extraordinary powers to bounty hunters.

If Argentina can win this, we deter from vulture fund f%$#ery, particularly if Mark Brodsky is delivered to Buenos Aires in chains with hoods over their heads.

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