Hedge fund mogul Paul Singer wants to make one thing clear: He is no vulture.
The billionaire’s decade-long legal battle to force Argentina to pay off the debt it owes his $21.8 billion Elliott Management hedge fund has hit one roadblock after another.
The country’s latest offer to give Elliott far less than what it wants — presented to a New York appeals court last month — seems to be the last straw.
In his latest quarterly letter to investors, obtained by The Post, Singer outlined what he called Argentina’s “name-calling, scapegoating, bullying, fear-mongering and taunts” to brand Elliott and other bondholders “vultures.”
What’s “little known,” he said, is that Elliott “started purchasing Argentine debt before the 2001 default” — a clear attempt to show that the fund is no vulture picking at the carcass and that it has paid more for the bonds than Argentina suggests.
But while Elliott did buy some debt before the default, in a recent court filing Argentina said that the bonds involved in the case on appeal in New York were bought in 2008, with an estimated price of $48.7 million.
The Elliott claim is $1.44 billion, including interest.
Argentina’s proposal is similar to what bondholders who accepted debt exchanges received, but Elliott said it is only 15 percent of what the fund is owed.
In the letter, Singer also estimated that Argentina has spent approximately $250 million on legal fees on more than 20 separate appeals.
In an indication that fighting Argentina hasn’t been cheap for Elliott either, Singer said litigation is “expensive “ and that few “have the wherewithal, tools or stomach to withstand a protracted legal battle with an intractable — if not irrational — adversary.”