By Rodrigo Campos

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Holders of Argentina’s 1.5 billion-euro-denominated GDP warrants filed on Monday for U.S. courts to recognize English court judgments that hold Argentina liable for that debt, ramping up the heat as Argentina reforms open a path toward capital market access.

Hedge funds holding around 48% of the output-linked securities issued between 2005 and 2010 sued Argentina in 2019 and English courts ruled in their favor last October and in April 2023, leaving Argentina on the hook. Funds argued in 2022 that Argentina had a “propensity” to manipulate economic data to save billions of dollars -including in its payment to GDP warrant holders.

“While the claimants remain open to finding a consensual resolution with respect to the sums outstanding under the English Judgments … they intend to vigorously enforce their rights in any and all appropriate forums,” said a statement from law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which represents certain holders.

In order to be able to enforce the judgments against Argentine assets in the United States, the U.S. court would have to recognize the outcome of the process in the English courts.

The statement says that to secure a $20 billion program with the International Monetary Fund announced in April, “it appears that Argentina evidently made representations to the Fund that it was engaged in active, good-faith efforts to resolve the English Judgments to address the Fund’s lending into arrears guidelines. No negotiations are ongoing, and to the extent Argentina represented that they were, that representation was incorrect.”

In its staff report on Argentina from April, the IMF mentions final judgment on the GDP warrant debt for 1.6 billion euros “where negotiations are underway to define a repayment schedule.”

The IMF did not respond to a request for comment on whether Argentina reported that negotiations were ongoing or if the fund made its own checks.

The Argentine government did not respond to a request for comment.

The Quinn Emanuel statement also cites the IMF program target of Argentina regaining access to international capital markets.

“There should not be, nor can there be in practice, any market access until and unless Argentina resolves its default under the English Judgments,” the statement said.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos in New York; Additional reporting by Eliana Raszewski in Buenos Aires; Editing by Mark Porter, Nick Zieminski and Matthew Lewis)