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Argentinian creditors gather in New York to demand payment

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Betsi Fores The Daily Caller News Foundation
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More than a dozen of Argentina’s stiffed creditors will gather in New York on Tuesday to demand payment from a government that has refused payment to holdout bond holders for more than a decade.

The conference, organized by American Task Force Argentina, will speak on the upcoming trial in the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals that will settle a landmark sovereign debt case against Argentina.

“The outcome of this case affects tens of thousands of mostly elderly Argentines, Europeans and Americans who lost money on Argentine bonds when the regime defaulted in 2001,” American Task Force Argentina said in a statement.

“Demanding fairness and standing on patriotic principle, this group of committed holdouts is eager to share their personal stories of hardship and sacrifice.” (RELATED: Argentina’s history of not paying up goes back a long while)

In 2005 and again in 2010, Argentina offered restructured debt payments to their bondholders. The majority of them accepted.

The remaining bondholders who are still legally owed payments for their original bonds have yet to receive a cent from the South American country in the last 12 years.

The holdouts have pursued legal action against the state of Argentina in an effort to recoup what they are legally owed.

Despite more than 100 judgments from courts in the U.S. and around the world demanding Argentina pay their original bondholders, they continue to balk at payments on their bonds.

Meanwhile, Argentina sits on $45 billion in cash reserves.

“Many of those bondholders are themselves Argentine citizens, some of whom invested their life savings or retirement funds in the securities, assuming that their government would follow the law and keep its contractual promises – which it did not,” American Task Force Argentina writes.

The U.S. Department of Justice has yet to take any steps to defend the bondholders in questions.

“If Argentina is allowed to continue to shirk bond payments, some fear that countries in worse financial condition will emulate its practices, thereby undermining creditor rights and the rule of law, and calling into question the enforceability of sovereign debt contracts,” TheDC News Foundation previously reported.

Argentina’s appeal case will be held at the end of February.

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Tags : argentina
Betsi Fores