A group of Italian investors seeking payment of their defaulted Argentine bonds lost a bid to collect a portion of $539 million the South American country deposited in Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The judge overseeing Argentine bond litigation in New York rejected the claim yesterday, ruling sovereign funds located outside the U.S. are immune from seizure. U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa said that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which limits the ability of people to sue foreign governments, doesn’t permit the investors to seize the funds. Argentina defaulted on a record $95 billion in 2001, roiling international markets and limiting the nation’s access to credit. Argentina exchanged 92 percent of its defaulted bonds for new ones, at a sharp discount, in restructurings in 2005 and 2010. The Italian investors said that they bought the bonds when they were issued and didn’t agree to exchange them for the new bonds.
