Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Philippe Hildebrand, president of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), was handed a subpoena as he stepped off a flight in Washington DC, USA on his way to an International Monetary Fund meeting 6 October, Geneva newspaper Le Temps reveals 1 December. The subpoena was served by two fund managers, Kenneth Dart and Paul Singer, whose funds specialize in buying distressed debt, securities that are worth much less than their face value, in the hope that the securities will appreciate.
The funds had won injunctions in US courts against Argentina, almost $1 billion of whose debt the fund managers own. Argentina is alleged to be parking funds in the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements, of which Hildebrand is a director, to avoid the funds being impounded by the courts. Argentina has outstanding obligations on its debt dating from its default and devaluation in 2001.
Hildebrand invoked his diplomatic immunity and went to the IMF meeting. US authorities dropped the charges against Hildebrand in an agreement with the SNB 9 November, details of which have not been revealed.
A concerted effort by twitter users 13 October has forced a London law firm to alter the terms of a high court injunction which prohibited the Guardian newspaper from reporting a story on toxic waste dumped off the coast of Ivory Coast. Less than an hour after “twitterati” and bloggers broke the news themselves, the law firm that demanded the injunction, Carter-Ruck, telephoned Guardian lawyers to say that they had asked for the injunction to be altered.
The Guardian received the injunction from Carter-Ruck on 11 September in response to a story about an oil and gas exploration firm, Trafigura, which allegedly had dumped toxic waste in the sea off the Ivory Coast and is being sued by 31,000 Ivoreans. The terms of the injunction prohibited the newspaper from reporting on a parliamentary debate about a report into the alleged incident. The Guardian, Wall Street Journal
