Argentina may be held in contempt of court if the country’s officials don’t stop issuing false and misleading statements about a dispute between two groups of bondholders, said the U.S. judge overseeing the case, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday. The nation’s lawyers were called into Manhattan federal court on Friday for an emergency hearing after Argentina published full-page ads in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal the previous day challenging the court’s jurisdiction. The ads, which said that Argentina wants to keep paying its debt but has been prevented by U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa, misled the public, the judge said. Argentina’s obligations are the same to holders of restructured debt from a 2001 default and investors who rejected the new terms, Judge Griesa said. The judge said he had warned against such false statements just a week ago.
