Palast Hunts the Real Life Goldfinger for BBC
Palast Hunts the Real Life Goldfinger for BBC - watch it on Democracy Now!
"Vulture Fund” Company Wins $20 Million Payment from Zambia on $4 Million Debt
Thursday, February 15th, 2007
Watch the BBC Newsnight investigative report at
the BBC Newsnight website -- or at Democracy Now! with Palast and Amy
Goodman.
Listen -- Watch -- Read
“Vulture fund” companies buy
up the debt of poor countries at cheap prices, and then
demand payments much higher than the original amount of the
debt, often taking poor countries to court when they cannot
afford to repay.
Investigative journalist Greg Palast
reports on one company that has won the right to collect $20
million from the government of Zambia after buying its debt
for $4 million. In his recent State of the Union address,
President Bush declared the United States was taking on the
challenges of global hunger, poverty and disease, and urged
support for debt relief, which he called the best hope for
eliminating poverty.
But what exactly are wealthy nations
doing to reduce the debt of impoverished countries?
Today
we take a close look at companies known as "vulture funds."
Vulture fund companies buy up the debt of poor countries at
cheap prices, and then demand payments much higher than the
original amount of the debt, often taking poor countries to
court when they cannot afford to repay.
For an in-depth
look at this issue, we turn to a BBC Newsnight documentary
by investigative reporter Greg Palast. Greg Palast’s BBC
report on vulture funds. Today a high court judge in London
ruled on the case that a vulture fund can extract more than
$20 million from Zambia for a debt which it bought for just
$4 million. To tell us more about this case and more we now
turn to Greg Palast.
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Greg Palast.
Investigative reporter for the BBC on this story is author
of the books “Armed Madhouse”, “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy”
and “Democracy and Regulation.” www.GregPalast.com
The BBC Newsnight report was produced by Meirion Jones, BBC London; Rick Rowley, videographer/editor. Investigative research by Matt Pascarella, New York.
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