A United States appeals court on Wednesday upheld a judicial ruling authorising an embargo on US Treasury bonds used by Argentina to guarantee the issuing of debt.
The plaintiffs are seven investment funds which bought Argentine debt in 1994 and were hit by the country’s default in 2001. The initial lawsuit amounted to some US$420 million.
The South Manhattan Circuit Court authorised in 2021 the embargo of Argentine assets in the United States, including US Treasury bonds which Buenos Aires used to guarantee backing for sovereign debt issuance.
"The orders of the district court are confirmed," read the ruling of the appeals tribunal in its long writ.
The case goes back to the 1990s when Argentina issued guaranteed bonds as part of the Brady Plan of sovereign debt relief, instituted by then US Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady.
The plan implied the swap of almost US$30 billion in commercial bonds without guarantee for others with guarantee to be repaid in 2023 (Brady Bonds), according to the court.
The news comes just days after another US court denied Argentina a motion against the Titan Consortium fund’s claim to the payment of a compensation of US$320 million for the nationalisation of Aerolíneas Argentinas in 2008, then property of the Spanish group Marsans.
Argentina has also just lost another appeal in a British court against being obliged to pay US$1.67 billion for miscalculating growth-linked debt coupons.
On August 15 it suffered another adverse ruling for not paying debt from 2001, costing the country US$140 million.
Last September the South Manhattan court condemned Argentina to pay US$16.1 billion on behalf of two former shareholders of YPF oil company, who were not compensated for its 2012 nationalisation when it was controlled by Spain’s Repsol.
In total, according to the analyst Sebastián Maril of Latam Advisors, the judicial cases still open involving Argentina amount to US$28 billion.
This adds up, he assured in a telephone conversation with AFP, to a "tsunami" which could "sour the life" of Javier Milei’s government.
"The longer he takes [to resolve it], the worse it will be for his economic plan," assured Maril.
– TIMES/AFP
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