How one hedge fund titan could bankrupt Argentina
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By Michelle Celarier June 12, 2014
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Paul Singer, founder and CEO of hedge fund Elliott Management
On the surface, the 11-year-old battle between one 69-year-old New York hedge fund mogul and Argentina seems hardly fair — especially when several other countries joined the fight and lined up alongside the South American country.
But today, that person, billionaire investor Paul Singer, head of Elliott Management, could get closer than he's ever been to taking down an entire country.
The US Supreme Court met Thursday to decide if it will accept Argentina's appeal of a lower court decision that it must pay Singer roughly $1.4 billion on bonds the country defaulted on 13 years ago. A decision is expected to be announced on Monday.
Eventually, Singer stands to collect more than $3 billion on bonds with a face value of about $630 million.
While most holders of the bonds agreed to a steep haircut when Argentina restructured its debt, Singer, who paid about 22 cents on the dollar for some of his bonds, refused — claiming he had the right to hold out for the entire amount. Others would latch on to Singer's legal fight.
Two separate US courts would later agree with Singer.
Argentina now claims the amount due all the holdouts, with interest, is about $15 billion — more than half of the country's entire $28 billion in reserves. The country's gross domestic product in 2012 was $475 billion.
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One judge ruling in favor or the vultures was U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa. He ruled Argentina must pay the entire $1.3 billion claimed by the creditors in the lawsuit whenever it made any payment on its restructured debt. The issue was argued before the appeals court on Feb. 27 in Manhattan.
(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/argentina-one-sixth-bond-offer-seen-as-thumbing-nose-.htm (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-30/argentina-one-sixth-bond-offer-seen-as-thumbing-nose-.htm)l)