\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t The Argentine government refused to disclose the location and movements of the Central Bank\u2019s gold reserves to a hedge fund in a New York lawsuit over the expropriation of state-owned energy company YPF.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s main argument is that the monetary authority is a separate entity from the government, while the hedge fund says it is an \u201calter ego\u201d of the administration.<\/p>\n
The dispute stems from the legal battle Argentina has been waging against Burford Capital in U.S. courts over the 2012 expropriation for more than a decade now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2023, Judge Loretta Preska ruled that the country had breached its contract and ordered it to pay US$16.1 billion, a judgment Argentina\u2019s lawyers have appealed.<\/p>\n
Burford Capital is demanding some of the country\u2019s assets as partial payment, including the Central Bank\u2019s gold.<\/p>\n
Burford\u2019s grounds to demand the gold Last week, Burford\u2019s lawyers requested a conference to compel Argentina to \u201cprovide a sworn statement identifying the location, movements, and account(s) holding\u201d the Argentine Central Bank\u2019s gold reserves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If Argentina couldn\u2019t provide the information, the plaintiff\u2019s attorneys asked that a new hearing be called for.<\/p>\n
Burford had also requested access to several government officials\u2019 text messages, arguing that they would show that five entities, including YPF and the Central Bank, are actually \u201calter egos\u201d of the Argentine government.<\/p>\n
The hedge fund has also asserted that Economy Minister Luis Caputo has knowledge of the gold reserve\u2019s movements, citing newspaper articles reporting that he commented on the issue in June 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Argentina\u2019s defense In a letter to Judge Preska, Argentina\u2019s lawyers said those comments were made after the movement of the gold reserves had already been \u201cwidely reported\u201d on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Court should deny Plaintiffs\u2019 baseless request,\u201d said Argentina.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Burford has also accused Argentina of \u201cconcealing more than US$1 billion in gold reserves,\u201d but the government\u2019s legal representatives said that is false.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing has been \u2018concealed\u2019; instead, the [Central Bank] publishes information about the amount of the gold reserves it holds,\u201d Argentina\u2019s letter said, adding that the country \u201chas repeatedly explained that all gold reserves are the property of and managed by the Central Bank,\u201d which is a \u201clegally separate and distinct\u201d entity from the government.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the foregoing reasons, Plaintiffs\u2019 request should be denied,\u201d Argentina said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The government, however, offered a small compromise. In an \u201ceffort to accommodate Plaintiffs\u2019 unreasonable demands,\u201d the administration stated that it would request the Central Bank, the Security Ministry, and the National Internal Audit Office information on the gold reserves.<\/p>\n
Scrutiny over the gold\u2019s location Burford is not the only party interested in knowing the gold\u2019s location. Last month, a local court ordered the Central Bank to hand over information regarding the location of the gold bars it allegedly shipped abroad in June last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the ruling, the court also offered the bank a way out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In its ruling, it stated that, should the bank intend to stand by its position, it should thoroughly explain its main argument for denying the information request. According to bank authorities, handing out the data \u201cposes a threat to the financial or banking system or could harm the interests of the Central Bank.\u201d<\/p>\n
The information request stems from a presentation filed by banking workers union La Bancaria immediately after Economy Minister Luis Caputo confirmed that the Central Bank had sent the gold bars overseas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Argentine government refused to disclose the location and movements of the Central Bank\u2019s gold reserves to a hedge fund in a New York lawsuit over the expropriation of state-owned energy company YPF. The country\u2019s main argument is that the monetary authority is a separate entity from the government, while the hedge fund says it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7914,101,1912,59,8683],"tags":[7912,97,1909,86,8682],"class_list":["post-30182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-burford-capital","category-central-bank","category-judiciary","category-politics","category-ypf-expropriation","tag-burford-capital","tag-central-bank","tag-judiciary","tag-politics","tag-ypf-expropriation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}