How to Do a Debt Restructuring

摘要

Tareck El Aissami, Venezuela's vice president, has summoned bondholders to a Nov. 13 meeting in Caracas as the country prepares to restructure its crushing debt. Turnout is likely to be sparse. That's because investors accepting El Aissami's invitation could run afoul of the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control. U.S. sanctions prohibit Americans from accepting new bonds that Venezuela would issue as part of a restructuring. Also, El Aissami has been designated a narcotics trafficker under a 1999 law known as the Kingpin Act; any officer of a U.S. corporation who deals with him faces the risk of prosecution, which could result in fines of as much as $5 million and 30 years in jail. "They are basically assigning the discussion with bondholders to the most radioactive member of the Venezuelan government," says Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez, a lecturer at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. "That's not a figure you can imagine people in New York-hedge funds, bankers-sitting at a table with, trying to hash out some sort of a refinancing or a restructuring."