Judge lifts bar on debt service payment in Argentina case
A US judge gave Argentina a minor victory in its fight against hedge fund bondholders when he lifted a block on Citigroup processing a small debt service payment for the country before a September 30 deadline.
New York federal court judge Thomas Griesa lifted his block on the $5 million payment to holders of a small class of the country's debt, US dollar bonds issued under Argentina's laws, avoiding the country being called into default for the second time in two months.
Citigroup had argued that it was caught between two countries' laws -- Griesa's threat of contempt of court if it violates his ban on payments, and Buenos Aires' threat to prosecute the bank on criminal charges for not following through with its mandate to process the payment.
Griesa allowed the one-off payment by Citigroup, but otherwise maintained his ban on any payments to holders of the country's restructured bonds unless it pays the hedge funds for the $1.3 billion in unrestructured bonds that they hold.
http://news.yahoo.com/judge-lifts-bar-debt-payment-argentina-case-234124370.html
