Sunday, December 28, 2014

‘Vultures’ spend US$1M on lobbying in 2014

The American Task Force Argentina increases expenditure by four percent

The American Task Force Argentina (ATFA), the visible arm of the holdout hedge funds, has spent US$1.06 million so far this year on lobbying actions against Argentina, four percent more than in 2013, according to records of the United States Senate Office of Public Records. Since 2007 when the lobbying actions started, ATFA has spent US$5.66 million and the amount has increased every year.

As it had done in previous years, ATFA hired lobbying firms Covington and Burling, Raben Group, Mack Strategies, Doug Davenport, Schokey Scofields Solutions and DCI Group to lobby in favour of the “vulture funds” in the White House, the Department of Justice, the Department of State, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The lobbying this year included issues of foreign relations, trade, agriculture and finance, most of them with the objective of “holding the country accountable for US Court judgments against it,” according to the lobbying reports. A bill asking to “condition Argentina’s membership in the G20” was also encouraged by ATFA, among many other actions.

ATFA’s expenditure against Argentina started in 2007 with US$120,000 and has steeply grown ever since. In 2008 US$350,000 were spent, followed by US$510,000 in 2009, US$740,000 in 2010, US$920,000 in 2011, US$955,000 in 2012 and US$1.01 million in 2013. Spending has increased by almost 100 percent when comparing 2007 to 2014, but it hasn’t grown much over the past few years.

In the US, all lobbyists must register their activities and who they operate for, and these documents are collected on a monthly basis by the Centre for Responsive Politics. The research on ATFA, which can be seen in detail at the CRP’s website, goes from 2007, when the lobbying action started, to 2014 and it specifies how much was spent and who has carried out the lobbying for them.

One of ATFA’s main recipients this year was the Raben Group with US$270,000, a firm headed by Robert Raben, the executive director of ATFA. Raben is quite familiarized with how the US three branches of power work as he worked as an adviser in Congress for seven years and was then appointed as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General and, subsequently, Assistant Attorney General.

Another US$270,000 were given to Covington and Burling, another lobbying firm. Bill Wichterman is ATFA’s main connection there and that probably wasn’t a random choice as he worked as a special adviser to George W. Bush in 2008 and remained in the position for one year after Barack Obama became US president. He also worked as an adviser for the former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

Former lawmaker for Florida Connie Mack IV was given US$240,000 due to his position at the firm Mack Strategies, also known as Liberty Partners Group. Mack works there with his wife Mary Bono Mack and his father, Connie Mack III, since he lost the Senate elections in 2012, a campaign financed by Elliot Management.

Meanwhile, another US$100,000 were given to the firm Shockey Scofield Solutions, where Republican lobbyists John Scofield, Jeffrey Shockey and Mike Ference work, and US$60,000 to DCI Group, which has appointed as a lobbyists to work with ATFA. DCI is considered the PR firm of the Republican Party and a denier of climate change and it has worked for companies such as Exxon-Mobil, Boeing and General Motors and for presidential candidate John McCain in 2008.

The holdout creditors, often called “vulture funds,” have sought repayment in full on bonds that were defaulted in 2001. The hedge funds leading the legal fight against Argentina have staunchly refused to enter into the debt swaps offered in 2005 and 2010 that were accepted by almost 93 percent of bondholders.

Led by Elliott Management and Aurelius Capital, they have obtained a positive decision from Judge Thomas Griesa, who said Argentina cannot service its restructured debt without also paying the holdouts. The move led to an embargo on US$539 million that Buenos Aires had distributed to restructured creditors. ATFA has led an increasingly virulent campaign seeking payment, harshly criticizing President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her government.

A wide-ranging strategy

ATFA’s strategy has included increasingly aggressive public information campaigns that have included direct attacks against Argentine public officials. As representatives for the most recalcitrant of bondholders, ATFA has made it a point to win over decision-makers in the political, judicial and economic spheres of the United States.

That effort has also extended to Argentina, with limited results.

During a visit to Buenos Aires in July of this year, Nancy Soderberg and Robert Shapiro — who jointly Co-Chair the ATFA — met with selected journalists to promote the holdouts’ vision of a negotiated solution to the ongoing debt dispute. At the time, the ATFA directors pointed fingers at Economy Minister Axel Kicillof and questioned his role in defending Argentine interests in the country’s decade-long legal dispute.

“We are not representatives of Elliott, we just want their contracts to be fulfilled,” Soderberg said, according to online news outlet Infobae, one of four media outlets invited to the event, which also included the newspapers Clarín, La Nación and Perfil — which notably have an editorial stance in opposition to the government.

Shapiro was an adviser to Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and a senior adviser to Al Gore’s 2000 run for the White House. Soderberg, who served as a senior foreign policy adviser to Senator Edward Kennedy, was also a member of Clinton’s National Security Council and an alternative representative to the UN with the title of ambassador. She is currently a Democratic Party activist in Florida, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the chair of the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB).

Soderberg and Shapiro have written numerous opinion pieces on Argentina using their Clinton administration credentials and, depending on the publication, have not always disclosed their lobbying ties. President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner questioned Soderberg because of her role at PIDB, an advisory committee established by Congress in 2000, to promote the fullest possible public access to significant US national security decisions and activities.

The campaign has also included high-profile full-page ads run in some of those dailies promoting their stance while at the same using its Fact Check: Argentina blog to publish extremely critical articles against the government and its policies. More recently, it has styled itself a corruption-fighter, trying to track down what it says are public funds that have been illegally laundered abroad and which they could attach to help cover what they say they are owed.

Most recently, the blog seemed to go further in its aggresiveness against the government by promoting a playing-card set that portrays figures in the spotlight who have ties to the government and have been linked to money-laundering of public funds. Among those included in the set are Vice-president Amado Boudou and Kirchnerite public works tycoon Lázaro Báez. Visitors to the blog are encouraged to download the figures, which also feature a “rat score,” which ranges from a “known rat associate” to a “rat leader.”

Herald staff