Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Griesa holds off on Citi subpoena in vulture fund case

US judge Thomas Griesa (file photo).

US district judge Thomas Griesa has said he would wait for a decision on a pending appeal before ordering Citigroup to comply with a subpoena served by holdout investors seeking details of any threats from Argentina to process payments the court had blocked.

Griesa at a hearing in New York acknowledged Argentina may be undertaking efforts to force Citigroup to violate orders he previously issued as part of litigation that led to the country's default in July.

But the judge said he would wait to rule on the subpoena request until after a federal appeals court next week considers whether to uphold his decision blocking Citigroup from processing the payments on US dollar-denominated bonds issued under Argentine law.

The subpoena was issued by Elliott Management's NML Capital Ltd, which has been suing for full payment on bonds in default since 2002.

"It almost goes without saying whatever the court of appeals decides will have an effect on the issues we're dealing with here," Griesa said