U.S. tax exile Kenneth Dart pockets €400m from Greek crisis
Source: The Independent
An American tax exile living in the Cayman Islands has emerged as a winner from the chaos engulfing Greece, even as the political and economic turmoil in the beleaguered nation deepened yesterday, with Athens putting a senior judge in charge of an emergency government to lead it to fresh elections.
Kenneth Dart, the Michigan-born heir to a disposable cups fortune, was handed an estimated €400m (£320m) cheque from Greece this week, after successfully calling the country's bluff and refusing to take part in the restructuring of government debt that saved Greece from default in the spring.
... This already complex picture is further complicated by the role of the vulture funds. Dart Management holds a significant portion of the roughly 5 per cent of Greek debt that was not subject to renegotiation under the terms of its bailout deal, and took a reported 90 per cent of the €436m paid by the Greek government to bondholders on Tuesday. While Mr Dart is still a board member of the family company, Dart Containers, which is America's largest producer of plastic cups, he has not lived in the country since 1994.
After decamping from the US on his 220ft yacht, he settled in the Cayman Islands, where he is a powerful real estate developer. Dart Management, along with another vulture fund Elliott Associates, is likely to have picked up Greek debt at a fraction of its value in the hope of being able to force the country into paying some or all of what it owes. The two firms are still suing Argentina in the US courts to demand full payment of bonds on which that government defaulted in 2002. Mr Dart first came to international attention in this sphere by pocketing an estimated $600m from putting pressure on the Brazilian government after its default in 1993.
Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/vulture-funds-circle-as-greece-fears-grow-7758127.html
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