Ghana seizes Argentinian ship in quarrel over debt
Friday 12 October 2012
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EmailArgentina expressed outrage today after a Ghanaian judge ruled that a seized naval vessel could not set sail until Buenos Aires pays its debts.
Justice Richard Agyei-Frimpong issued the ruling on Thursday, days after he ordered the training ship held in harbour as part of a case brought by NML Capital Ltd.
NML is a subsidiary of Elliot Capital Management, a fund run by billionaire Paul Singer, which bought bonds Argentinian government bonds cheaply after the country's economic collapse in 2002.
The firm is now demanding payment in full plus interest.
Most creditors accepted the devaluing of Argentinian debt in 2005 and settled for three-tenths of the bonds' original value, but Mr Singer leads "hold-outs" insisting on the full price.
The Argentinian Foreign Ministry said Mr Singer "has boasted of having always won with his strategy of buying debt in default" and that the "usurious" practice had been particularly harmful to some African economies.
Argentina's foreign and defence ministers plan to travel to Ghana to try to resolve the issue.
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