October 2, 2007 (LPAC)--In an October 1st ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower-court ruling that prevents two vulture funds from seizing $105 million in Argentine reserves held at the New York Federal Reserve to repay defaulted government bonds.

EM Limited and NML Capital, owned by notorious professional speculator Kenneth Dart, refused to participate in Argentina's 2005 debt restructuring and instead took the Kirchner government to court, in hopes of getting paid the full value of the bonds they had bought—at bargain basement prices—instead of the 35% offered by Argentina. Sleazy Dart is well known for having speculated on the debt of many Third World countries, later making a killing after they defaulted. Argentina defaulted on its debt in December, 2001.

Nor are the vulture funds and their allies deterred by the Supreme Court ruling. An organization representing these predators, the American Task Force Argentina (ATFA), run by former Commerce Department official Robert Shapiro, has mounted a high-profile campaign to demand that foreign creditors boycott Argentina until Kirchner agrees to pay $20 billion to the vulture funds that didn't participate in the debt restructuring.