Hedge fund NML Capital Ltd. has chased the Republic of Argentina around the globe in pursuit of about $1.7 billion in judgments related to NML’s holdings of defaulted Argentine bonds. This week, with Argentina in default once again, NML continued its pursuit of Argentina’s billions where many a fortune has been won and lost: Vegas.
NML and its lawyers at Dechert and Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck won a 23-page ruling in Las Vegas on Monday that could help the company collect a small fraction of what it is owed. U.S. Magistrate Judge Cam Ferenbach concluded that NML can seek discovery from 123 Nevada shell companies the hedge fund suspects were used to launder $65 million in embezzled Argentine funds. If no documents are available, the ruling gives NML the right to depose a lawyer connected to the companies: Mossack & Fonseca partner Letcia Montoya in Panama, who lives and works well beyond the normal 100-mile limit for enforcing subpoenas in federal civil cases.
