House Committee on Ways and Means

Statement of Mark Hudson Botsford

I am a U.S. citizen who recently returned home to Washington, D.C., after spending many years in Argentina, as a private business consultant.  I invested in local Argentine Treasury Bills, in October 2001, prior to the declaration of the largest sovereign debt default in history.  After the default was declared, I found comfort in the fact that  the IMF has a lending into arrears article, which declared that any country in default, must enter into good faith negotiations with all of its creditors in a transparent forum to determine capacity and willingness in any restructuring.  Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed as the U.S. government supported the Argentine government and failed to insist on these negotiations, thereby allowing Argentina to extend deadlines on loans.  In 2005, the SEC approved the restructuring process, as the majority of bonds were issued under New York State Court Jurisdiction.  Again, the SEC failed to use precedent, and signed off on the largest haircut ever proposed, 70%.  I did not enter the voluntary restructuring and am presently awaiting a new offer from the Argentine authorities.  In 2006, the CRS submitted a report to Congress on this restructuring, which stated that the creditors were unable to generate much sympathy from Congress.  As the CRS points out, I believe this is due to the fact that, by then, the nature of the creditors had changed.  Prior to the default of December, 2001, Argentina had succeeded in aggressively marketing its debt for the first time to individuals in addition to institutions.  After the default, since neither the U.S., through the IMF nor the SEC were effective in protecting U.S. investors overseas, the majority of these individuals sold their holdings at a big loss to large commercial banks and hedge funds.  I have returned to seek a non legal solution to  the problem of Argentina's continuing default, and to try to impede other countries, such as Ecuador, from following in her footsteps.  However, one avenue I will not proceed on, is that which is afforded to me by the breach of the U.S. Argentina BIT.  It is much too costly and time consuming, and even if I get a ruling in my favor, the lack of enforcement provisions make any effort in this regard fruitless.  The Argentine successfully characterizes her creditors as vulture funds and opportunistic international banks.  The reality was that individual investors, such as myself, saw their life savings evaporate, while the international community looked the other way.  In a time when major banks and multinationals are teetering on bankruptcy, we should not be seen as promoting sovereign debt defaults around the world.