http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/KH21Ag02.html Pressure grows to clip vulture funds' wings
Fifty advocacy organizations are calling on the United States Congress to put a stop to investment funds which purchase heavily indebted countries' debt and jeopardize the impact of bilateral and multilateral debt cancelation to more than 30 countries.
The groups - which include the The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Jubilee USA Network, TransAfrica Forum, the American Jewish World Service, the United Methodist Church and Africa Action - are seeking to stop what they have dubbed "very unscrupulous loan transfers from underprivileged countries to rich, exploitive funds" or "vulture" funds.
These funds purchase heavily indebted countries' debt at pennies to the dollar then "aggressively pursue their claims through the seizure of assets, litigation and political pressure, seeking repayments that are far in excess of the amount that they paid for the debt", the groups say.
The strategies used by vulture funds act in direct contradiction to international efforts to cancel debt for the world's poorest countries - a movement that has already canceled over US$90 billion in debt.
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cripe! if they can't steal money one way they come up with another