Wednesday, October 4, 2017

We Can Finally Identify One of the Largest Holders of Puerto Rican Debt

Via Iver

Seth Klarman, founder of the Baupost Group LLC, talks on the phone while arriving to a morning session during the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, U.S., on Thursday, July 10, 2014. Technology companies from Silicon Valley are expected to take center stage at this year's Allen & Co.'s Sun Valley conference as tech and media converge. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg via Getty Images

For years, the identity of the owner of one of the largest holdings of Puerto Rican debts has been a mystery.

That mystery has finally been solved, with the help of the The Baupost Group, who unmasked themselves to The Intercept. The Baupost Group, a Boston-based hedge fund managed by billionaire Seth Klarman, owns nearly a billion dollars of Puerto Rican debt, purchased under a shell company subsidiary and hidden from public scrutiny. Baupost acquired the debt through an on-paper Delaware-based corporation named Decagon Holdings LLC, whose beneficial owner had been unknown until now.

5 comments:

  1. Gee, Seth Klarman a New York, Liberal Jew. Who could have predicted he'd be involved in a money matter like this?

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  2. Puerto Rico has been managed irresponsibly. It was approximately $74B in debt before hurricane Maria. It now needs billions of additional dollars to rebuild its infrastructure. Puerto Rico previously defaulted on its debt and some investors such as Seth Klarman purchased Puerto Rican obligations at pennies on the dollar. The purchase wasn't illegal, immoral or unethical, yet David Dayen decided to vilify Klarman. IMO the mystery is not who purchased the obligations but how Puerto Rico got into such a mess to begin with. We, the American taxpayers, are on the hook to bail out Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is responsible, not Klarman.

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    Replies
    1. the mystery is not who purchased the obligations but how Puerto Rico got into such a mess to begin with

      Agreed.

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  3. Just a vulture - this type using shell companies to buy Puerto Rican bonds, then, can shield wealthy investors from public knowledge of their complicity in the misery of millions of U.S. citizens. Glad his cloak has fallen.

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