Mendoza receives a new nod from US justice in a lawsuit against a vulture

The lawsuit brought by Moshe Marcel Ajdler in the Southern District of New York State District Court, was to obtain the payment of principal and interest Aconcagua issued in 1997 – for $ 250 million – by the provincial executive of Arturo Lafalla, as part of the privatization of Menem. The crisis of 2001 forced its restructuring and replaced it with a new title: "Bono Mendoza 2018".

Starting in 2016, Ajdler He started sending letters to the provincial government asking for payment. Subsequently, he raised the complaint in US law when he alleged the breach of the contract of the said obligations. First, the target for bondholders was $ 7 million out of the $ 10.5 million that had not been converted to the 2004 stock exchange. It also required the payment of $ 23 million of interest.

On August 2, 2017, the Federal Court It resulted in the province's motion to dismiss the claim and considered all the claims to be admissible. However, Ajdler appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal for the second circuit.

In that case, the province received a new sign of badent when the court agreed with the decision at first instance. Despite this, the highest court – the New York State Court of Appeals – had to resolve questions of legal interpretation.

For this reason, he asked to clarify whether the obligation to pay the capital – already prescribed – could continue to generate interest twice a year. In addition, it was necessary that before the affirmative answer to the first consultation, it was decided that there was a principle under local law that would prevent the demand for interest payments from continuing to run "ad infinitum".

This court accepted the application on June 12, 2018 and, nine months later, on March 21, rendered a favorable decision to the province headed by the governor. Alfredo Cornejo. He replied negatively to the first consultation, avoiding – a priori – that Mendoza must pay interest.

From the province, they pointed out that this was a very important precedent in resolving the conflict. It is now expected that the Federal Court of Appeal, a lower court than the above-mentioned court, will define in accordance with the response of the Supreme Court.

"This is the third trial the province is facing, this is happening with the $ 250 million bond issued in 1997 by the province of Mendoza, with the cessation of payments by Argentina in 2001, the province continued to pay and never defaulted, and in 2004 it proposed to bondholders to restructure the debt for a total of about $ 30 million, "said the Minister of Government. , Lisandro Nieri, in Diario Uno.