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	News Center The interest in the small bondholders Clarin May 04, 2010 by Ana Baron Source: WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT The effort by Economy Minister Amado Boudou and his finance secretary, Hernan Lorenzino, is centered fundamentally on convincing the small bondholders who still have Argentine bonds in default to accept the offer and enter the new swap that they put in motion in Rome. Why? Is it that the small bondholders are more important than the institutional funds or that they represent a greater amount of money? Neither one nor the other. The more bondholders who enter the swap, be they institutional or small, the more successful it will be. But in the case of the small bondholders there is also a legal reason. Depending on the level of participation of the small bondholders, in large part, Judge Griesa would begin to be more benign in his rulings toward Argentina. If the small bondholders, which is to say the investors that bought less than US$50,000 in bonds, conclude that the offer is reasonable and accept it en masse, the Argentine government could say in Griesa's court that it has acted in good faith. The argument has an enormous judicial weight. In U.S. legal language, it's the equivalent to the willingness to pay, something that until now Argentina has not managed to show. All to the contrary. And if Argentina wins the battle of good faith, it's most likely that Griesa and the Court of Appeals in New York thinks twice about ruling again against Argentina. "The Argentine government has said on multiple occasions that good faith is seen in the level of participation," said Mark Botsford, a small bondholder that is waging a campaign against the offer, to Clarin. "We small bondholders need to unite and we have to demand a new offer. There is no good faith here," he explained. What is clear is that all eyes are on what will be said by the President of Task Force Argentina, Nicola Stock, who despite leading 180,000 small holders of Argentine bonds in default, still hasn't made a statement. Lorenzino told Clarin that he'd spoken several times to Stock. In contrast to the vulture funds that bought bonds after the default on speculation, the small bondholders bought their bonds before. It's to say, they could argue that the Argentine government let them down. Of the US$20 billion in defaulted bonds, nobody knows exactly how much is in the hands of the small bondholders. The Italians have some US$4.3 billion and there is another US$3 billion in the rest of the world.		U.S. Government Takes Action Click here to view letters by the Administration and Members of Congress on Argentina's debt and economic policies. The Debt and Europe Click Here To Read More New York Senate Hearings ATFA Member Spotlight National Taxpayer's Union Open Letter to the U.S. House of Representatives: Protect Taxpayers from Judgment-Evading Nations Click here to view other ATFA member activity Join Us Show your support for ATFA and our work regarding debt default by joining our growing list of supporters.   Tell Your Friends Do you have friends or colleagues who would be interested in supporting ATFA? Send them an invitation to this site byclicking here.

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