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Investors sue to redeem 80-year-old German bonds

Published: September 6, 2010 9:25 PM
By those bonds to build the powerful Nazi war machine that would ravage Europe during World War II.. Now, a half-dozen U.S. bondholders are turning to federal courts in an effort to force Germany to make good on its promise to repay the debts, which today could be worth hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars. Action has been heating up in lawsuits filed in Miami, New York and Chicago, including a victory for investors last month when an appeals court rejected Germany's attempt to dismiss their case.. If the bondholders ultimately win, their lawyers could ask judges to seize German assets in the United States to repay them, a tactic that has worked in other legal disputes over money owed by foreign governments.. But if Germany prevails, the bondholders argue, it could undermine the global system through which governments raise money by issuing bonds.. Enrico Brandt, a spokesman for the German Embassy in Washington, said the only way bondholders can redeem the securities is to go through a validation process mandated by a 1953 international treaty and enshrined later in German law.. "Consequently, the efforts of the plaintiffs to outmaneuver the validation procedure by suing in the United States will fail," Brandt said in an e-mail.  

- AP

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