Court Orders Argentine Tall Ship Detention

A Ghana court judge rejected plea to release the 'ARA Libertad' training ship, detained through complaint by a US hedge fund creditor.

The sail training ship has been detained with more than 200 hundred crew members on board since 2, October 2012 in a port close to the West African port of Accra, reports Bernama.

The ARA Libertad is a three-masted tall ship that stopped at Tema while training hundreds of Argentine navy cadets.

The seizure of the flagship of Argentina's Navy stems from a complaint from a US hedge fund. Elliott Capital Management's lawyers have searched worldwide for ways of collecting on Argentine bonds bought at fire-sale prices following Argentina's record debt default a decade ago. The complicated case involves players in three nations: Argentina, Ghana and the United States.

The US$15 billion hedge fund is run by billionaire Paul Singer.

 Most bondholders eventually agreed to cancel Argentina's bad debts for about 30 cents on the dollar, but Singer is among those holding out for the full promised value of those notes, plus interest.

 Courts in the United States and Britain have granted judgments worth US$1.6 billion to the hedge fund, but it and other bondholders are still suing for billions more. Argentina has refused to pay.


Source: Bernama-NNN-Mercopress