By Joseph Ax
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Argentina, already in default, could see its financial troubles worsen as creditors holding billions of dollars in debt prepare to demand immediate payment, new court filings in New York show.
The creditors in more than 100 lawsuits are seeking the same injunctive relief that U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa granted to U.S. hedge funds that spurned Argentina's debt restructurings in 2005 and 2010, and then sued for full repayment of $1.33 billion (0.83 billion pounds) plus interest.
In a letter to Griesa filed late Thursday, Carmine Boccuzzi, a lawyer for Argentina, argued many creditors should be barred from seeking such relief because they already have court judgments ordering Argentina to pay them money.
Under federal law, creditors that have already secured judgments cannot also ask for an injunction to enforce them, Boccuzzi said.
The letter came in response to earlier correspondence from Robert Cohen, a lawyer for one of the holdout hedge funds, NML Capital, that said plaintiffs in 102 cases would be seeking an injunction.
The cases before Griesa involve $10 billion in claims from holdout investors, Reuters previously reported. A footnote in Boccuzzi's letter said holdouts have filed 25 lawsuits since mid-June totalling $4.7 billion in claims.
Aside from the hedge funds, the other holdout creditors are a mix of individual and institutional investors from around the world.
In a statement, Cohen said the motions seeking injunctive relief "provide a constructive vehicle to reach that resolution."
Argentina defaulted in July after refusing to honour Griesa's orders that it pay the holdout hedge funds, led by NML Capital and Aurelius Capital Management, at the same time it pays bondholders who accepted debt exchanges following the country's earlier 2002 default.
The most recent default came after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Argentina's appeal of Griesa's ruling and settlement talks went nowhere. The judge subsequently blocked Bank of New York Mellon Corp (N:BK) from processing a $539 million payment.
Earlier this week, Griesa granted his court-appointed mediator, Daniel Pollack, the authority to include other holdouts in negotiations in an effort to find a global settlement.
Argentina has said it cannot afford to pay all of the claims, a point Boccuzzi emphasized again in his letter in reference to the claims Cohen cited.
"Even that amount understates the full extent of the republic's exposure ... as additional billions of dollars of defaulted republic debt remains outstanding on top of those claims," Boccuzzi wrote.
Griesa held Argentina in contempt in September for defying his orders, though he has not yet decided what sanctions to impose. The country has appealed that ruling.
Argentina has argued it cannot negotiate a settlement on better terms than what was given to the exchange bondholders because of the restructuring agreement's "Rights Upon Future Offers" clause.
Argentine Economy Minister Axel Kicillof told Mexico's La Journada newspaper on Monday that the chances of a deal will improve when the RUFO clause expires at year's end.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; editing by Andrew Hay, Bernard Orr)