A U.S. judge has frozen all property held in the United States by Argentina's central bank, saying some or all of that money belongs to corporations that are owed billions of dollars by the Argentinean government. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Griesa signed the order Monday in New York City. The court made the order public on Wednesday. The amount of money involved is not clear because lawyers in the case have not yet totaled how much money the central bank has deposited in the United States, but the court has authorized creditors to take as much as $3.1 billion in Argentina's assets. The judge issued the order at the request of two investment firms that were among the creditors owed billions of dollars from Argentina's default on $95 billion in bonds in 2001.
