Singer loses bid to wrest $250M from Argentina

Paul Singer’s last-ditch attempt to get cash from Argentina this year has failed.

A motion by Singer’s hedge fund, Elliott Management, requesting that the South American country put up a security deposit of $250 million by Dec. 10 was denied by a federal appeals court today.

“Since we will not have a big payment for ages (if ever), this looks like a huge blow to [Elliott’s] strategy,” said sovereign-debt expert Anna Gelpern,

The appellate slap-down of the billionaire hedgie is the second in a week. Last week, the same panel overturned a decision by a District Court judge that would have required Argentina to put $1.3 billion in escrow to pay Elliott by Dec. 15, pending further appeals in a court battle that has dragged on for a decade.

Argentina is scheduled to pay $3 billion on Dec. 15 to exchange bondholders who agreed to big write downs on their debt. Elliott and other so-called holdouts did not agree to the restructuring and are demanding full repayment.

District Judge Thomas Griesa ruled Singer and his band of holdout bondholders are entitled to get paid in full when Argentina made payments to the others.

Argentina President Cristina Kirchner has repeatedly said that the country would never pay Singer and the other holdouts.

In the wake of Griesa’s ruling, when it appeared Argentina might make no payment in order to avoid paying Singer — which could have caused the restructured bonds to default — the price of those bonds went into a tailspin while the price of insuring the country’s debt skyrocketed.

The prices of both returned to more normal levels this week.

The concerns of exchange bondholders — as well as other third parties involved in making the payments, such as Bank of New York — were ignored by Griesa.

But the appeals court decided to give them time to make their case. It allowed the other bondholders — led by hedge funds Gramercy, Brevan Howard and Alliance Bernstein — to intervene in the case.

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Manhattan also set up a schedule for a fuller hearing of the argument, which stretches into late February.

Elliott tried to amend the process via its emergency motion requesting a security deposit as a “good faith” effort by Argentina. Singer’s $20 billion hedge fund argued that if its motion wasn’t granted by Dec. 15, it might get nothing.

“Argentina is . . . actively planning to evade the [court order] by attempting to move offshore its payment structure under the exchange bonds and will use the time to implement such plans,” said lawyer Ted Olsen in Elliott’s motion.

The hedge fund had made such arguments before, citing speculation in the Argentine press. However, a source close to Elliott told The Post it was “highly unlikely” that such work-arounds would be successful.

While Elliott’s emergency motion was a long shot, its demand for $250 million so incensed the exchange bondholders that they quickly shot back at Singer — asking the appeals court to force the billionaire to post $2 billion to an escrow account to help cover losses they might incur if it granted Elliott’s request and Argentina refused to post the security deposit.

Previously, Argentina broached the notion of reopening its debt exchange just days before the appeals court reinstituted its stay. Bondholders who had feared default were encouraged by that, believing it signaled Argentina that was open to negotiating with Elliott behind closed doors.

Those plans are believed to be on ice now, as the country works on its new brief.

mcelarier@nypost.com

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The business behind the artist: Miami’s art gallery scene still evolving

This week, thousands of art collectors, museum trustees, artists, journalists and hipsters from around the globe will arrive for the phenomenon known as Art Basel Miami Beach. The centerpiece of the week: works shown at the convention center by more than 260 of the world’s top galleries.

Only two of those are from Miami.

While Art Basel has helped transform the city’s reputation from beach-and-party scene to arts destination in the years since its 2002 Miami Beach debut, the region’s gallery identity is still coming into its own.

“Certainly Miami as an art town registers mightily because of the foundations, the collectors who have done an extraordinary job,” said Linda Blumberg, executive director of the Art Dealers Association of America. “I think there’s a definite international awareness there. But the gallery scene probably has a bit of a ways to go. That doesn’t mean it’s not really fascinating and interesting.”

The gallery business, especially where newer artists are concerned, is a game of risk, faith and passion. Once a gallery takes on an artist who shows promise, they become an evangelist on their behalf, showing their work in-house and at fairs, presenting it to museums and curators and potential collectors and bearing the cost of that promotion.

For contemporary artists, most galleries take work on consignment, meaning they get a cut of as much as 50 percent when works sell. While local art galleries have been growing in number and popularity in the last several years — just try to find parking during the monthly art walk in Miami’s hot Wynwood neighborhood — even some of the area’s top art dealers say that while business overall is good, they struggle in the local marketplace.

“Our problem is that we have to do lots of art fairs in order to connect with the market that we need to connect with to sell the work that we have,” said Fredric Snitzer, a Miami-Dade gallery owner for 35 years. “The better the work is, the harder it is to sell in Miami. And that ain’t good.”

A handful of serious collectors call Miami home and store their own collections in Miami, including the Braman, Rubell, Margulies and de la Cruz families. But outside a relatively small local group, many gallerists say, their clients come from other parts of the country and world.

And some gallerists point out the troubling reality that even the powerhouse Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin could not stay open in Miami for more than a few years.

“The fact that big galleries have not been able to sustain their business models in South Florida tells you we’re obviously not at this high established point,” said gallery owner David Castillo. “It’s not like we’ve arrived, let’s sit back and watch Hauser & Wirth open down the street.”

Still, Miami’s gallery business has come a long way since the early 1970s, when a few dealers on Bay Harbor Island’s Kane Concourse were selling high-end pieces but the local scene was hardly embraced.

Virginia Miller, who owns ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in Coral Gables, first opened in 1974 to showcase Florida artists, though her focus soon added an international scope. She and other longtime observers credit several factors for Miami’s transformation, including the community’s diversity, the establishment of important museums, the Art Miami fair that started 23 years ago, the presence of major collections and, of course, Art Basel Miami Beach.

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Lesbian bride who married partner at West Point is ’still processing all of the emotions’

As Brenda Sue Fulton stood in the back of West Point’s Cadet Chapel on Saturday, about to marry longtime partner Penelope Gnesin, an old friend said to her, "Well roomie, did you ever think this would happen?"

“No, not in a million years,’ ” said Fulton, originally of Stuart, Fla., as she and Gnesin became the first same-sex couple to marry at West Point’s Cadet Chapel.

“It was amazing,” Fulton told The Miami Herald on Sunday. “I’m still processing all of the emotions. There were so many of our friends from the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force, the Coast Guard, straight and gay. Family and friends. We had 250 people there and it was just overwhelming.”

Nadine Smith, a friend of Fulton’s and executive director of Equality Florida, the state’s largest gay-rights group, described the Fulton-Gnesin nuptials as “a big deal.”

“And yet despite her service to our country and this historic wedding at West Point, her marriage will not be recognized when she returns to her home state of Florida,” Smith said.

Fulton graduated from Martin County High School and attended West Point from 1976-80. She was among the first class of women to graduate from West Point.

“That was the the place where I first said the Cadet Prayer. That includes the language, ‘Make me choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong. And never settle for a half-truth when the whole can be won.’ That inspired us when we formed the LGBT West Point alumni, we assumed that as our motto.”

Fulton served five-and-a-half years in the Army. She served for five years in the Signal Corps in Germany, as a platoon leader, staff officer, and company commander.

In January 1986, Fulton left the Army. She didn’t want to continue hiding her sexual orientation.

“My obligation was complete,” Fulton said. “I just couldn’t continue to tell the white-lies and half-truths knowing I was gay. I left the Army as a captain.”

After leaving the military, Fulton went into the pharmaceuticals business.

Fulton, 53, and Gnesin, 52, have been together for 17 years.

“We met at a community sing at the local Presbyterian church,” Fulton said. “Penny was a choral director in her free time. I had been singing a long time. I saw her smile and I was done for. She heard my voice and came right over.”

Gnesin retired from AT&T after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The couple lives in Asbury Park, N.J.

Fulton was active in the movement to end ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ She is executive director of Knights Out, West Point’s LGBT group for alumni, staff and faculty. Also, she is a founder and communications director of OutServe, an association of active LGBT military personnel.

She’s a bit overwhelmed by how quickly the gay-rights movement seems to be advancing. When ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ ended in September 2011, it didn’t occur to Fulton that she would soon marry Gnesin at West Point. (New York State began allowing same-sex marriages two months before DADT ended.)

“Marriage seemed a lot farther away than service,” she said.

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Jamie Foxx & Kerry Washington's Confidential 'Django Unchained'

The countdown is on for Quentin Tarantino's highly anticipated Django Unchained, and its stars Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington were excited to talk about the Christmas Day release at the 10th anniversary celebration of Los Angeles Confidential magazine, with Jamie saying, "It's just a ride."

Pics: Jamie & Leo Smolder in 'Django'

"Everybody [in the cast] was fantastic," says Jamie, who just days ago saw the final cut of the film. "Kerry Washington, Christoph Waltz is amazing, Leonardo DiCaprio blows your mind, Samuel Jackson -- I'm just humbled to be in it."

The duo have united for the cover of Los Angeles Confidential magazine's December/January issue, and the Django co-stars partied it up over the weekend at the Supperclub Los Angeles. Many of Kerry's Scandal co-stars came out to support their good friend at the star-studded event, and entertainment included DJ Benjamin Walker and Verve Recording artists The Tenors. At one point Jamie became an impromptu emcee while Kerry danced by his side until he introduced the multi-platinum selling Tenors, who performed at the end of the event to send guests off into the night.

Pics: Jamie Foxx Kills It in 'Django' Trailer

During the chic party presented by Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and sponsored by Burgess Yachts, Group Publisher Alison Miller and Editor in Chief Spencer Beck, along with L.A. tastemakers, watched an aerialist perform and sipped on specialty cocktails by Chambord Flavored Vodka.

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R train to Whitehall resumes for first time since Sandy

AP

Service on the R train to the Whitehall Street Station resume today for the first time since Sandy.

The MTA resumed R train service today to Whitehall Street station in Manhattan for the first time since the system was shuttered for monster storm Sandy.

Trains had been stopping at 34th Street because of serious damage to the Lower Manhattan station and the line’s signals system.

“The resumption of service to the Whitehall Street station will restore a vital link to Midtown’s West Side for Staten Islanders and also ease crowding along the Lexington Avenue Line,” said Governor Cuomo.

There is still no Brooklyn-Manhattan R train service because of flooding damage to the Montague Tube, which carries the trains under the East River.

Service between the two boroughs is expected to resume by the end of the month.

“Transit workers continue to work around the clock to bring the Montague Tube back online, which will complete the R Line link from lower Manhattan to Downtown Brooklyn,” said MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota.

jennifer.fermino@nypost.com

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The business behind the artist: Miami’s art gallery scene still evolving

This week, thousands of art collectors, museum trustees, artists, journalists and hipsters from around the globe will arrive for the phenomenon known as Art Basel Miami Beach. The centerpiece of the week: works shown at the convention center by more than 260 of the world’s top galleries.

Only two of those are from Miami.

While Art Basel has helped transform the city’s reputation from beach-and-party scene to arts destination in the years since its 2002 Miami Beach debut, the region’s gallery identity is still coming into its own.

“Certainly Miami as an art town registers mightily because of the foundations, the collectors who have done an extraordinary job,” said Linda Blumberg, executive director of the Art Dealers Association of America. “I think there’s a definite international awareness there. But the gallery scene probably has a bit of a ways to go. That doesn’t mean it’s not really fascinating and interesting.”

The gallery business, especially where newer artists are concerned, is a game of risk, faith and passion. Once a gallery takes on an artist who shows promise, they become an evangelist on their behalf, showing their work in-house and at fairs, presenting it to museums and curators and potential collectors and bearing the cost of that promotion.

For contemporary artists, most galleries take work on consignment, meaning they get a cut of as much as 50 percent when works sell. While local art galleries have been growing in number and popularity in the last several years — just try to find parking during the monthly art walk in Miami’s hot Wynwood neighborhood — even some of the area’s top art dealers say that while business overall is good, they struggle in the local marketplace.

“Our problem is that we have to do lots of art fairs in order to connect with the market that we need to connect with to sell the work that we have,” said Fredric Snitzer, a Miami-Dade gallery owner for 35 years. “The better the work is, the harder it is to sell in Miami. And that ain’t good.”

A handful of serious collectors call Miami home and store their own collections in Miami, including the Braman, Rubell, Margulies and de la Cruz families. But outside a relatively small local group, many gallerists say, their clients come from other parts of the country and world.

And some gallerists point out the troubling reality that even the powerhouse Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin could not stay open in Miami for more than a few years.

“The fact that big galleries have not been able to sustain their business models in South Florida tells you we’re obviously not at this high established point,” said gallery owner David Castillo. “It’s not like we’ve arrived, let’s sit back and watch Hauser & Wirth open down the street.”

Still, Miami’s gallery business has come a long way since the early 1970s, when a few dealers on Bay Harbor Island’s Kane Concourse were selling high-end pieces but the local scene was hardly embraced.

Virginia Miller, who owns ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in Coral Gables, first opened in 1974 to showcase Florida artists, though her focus soon added an international scope. She and other longtime observers credit several factors for Miami’s transformation, including the community’s diversity, the establishment of important museums, the Art Miami fair that started 23 years ago, the presence of major collections and, of course, Art Basel Miami Beach.

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Two dead after bus crash at Miami International Airport

What began as a day of prayer and fellowship turned into a surreal scene of stunned, bloodied passengers and twisted metal.

There was the sickening sound of crunching metal early Saturday as a busload of Jehovah’s Witnesses was low-bridged by a concrete overpass at Miami International Airport, peeling back the top of the vehicle “like a can of sardines.”

Airport workers running to the scene found shocked passengers thrown into the aisle or trapped in their seats by the wreckage.

Riders in the front rows were crushed — two of them killed, others seriously injured.

The driver of the bus, 47-year-old Ramon Ferreiro, took a wrong turn off LeJeune Road, entering the airport by mistake, then rolled past multiple yellow signs warning tall vehicles. He drove on, approaching an overpass whose sign said “8ft-6in”. The driver either didn’t see it, couldn’t read it, or realized it too late.

The bus stood 11 feet tall.

“The last thing he should have done is to keep going,” said Greg Chin, airport spokesman. “That goes against all logic.”

Ferreiro, whose driver’s seat was lower than those of the passengers, was not injured.

One passenger, 86-year-old Miami resident Serfin Castillo, was killed on impact, and all 31 others were taken by ambulance to local hospitals. Thirteen ended up at Jackson Memorial’s Ryder Trauma Center, where one of them, 56-year-old Francisco Urana of Miami, died shortly after arriving.

Three remained in critical condition Saturday night, and three had been released.

Luis Jimenez, 72, got a few stitches on his lip and hurt his hand. He said the group left the Sweetwater Kingdom Hall about 7 a.m., bound for West Palm Beach.

“I was sitting in the back when it happened,” Jimenez said. “We were on our way to an assembly and lost a brother today. I’m very sad.”

Delvis Lazo, 15, a neighbor and member of the same congregation, described Castillo as a “nice, old man.” He often saw Castillo at religious gatherings, and their families have known each other for more than 15 years.

The last time Lazo saw him was about two months ago, as he prepped for a talk before his congregation.

“He gave me a thumbs up, told me that everything was going to be all right,” he said.

The bus, one of three traveling to the Spanish-language general assembly on Saturday, had been contracted by the congregation, which has fewer than 150 members.

According to public records, the bus belongs to Miami Bus Service Corporation, a Miami company owned by Mayling and Alberto Hernandez that offers regularly scheduled service between South Florida and Gainesville, often used by University of Florida students. At the home address listed for the company and the owners, Mayling Hernandez told The Miami Herald that passenger safety is her primary concern.

“At this time I’m worried about the driver and the families of the victims. I’m praying for them,” she said. “My job is to worry about the safety of the passengers who are our clients. What we do requires a lot of responsibility. I didn’t know the passengers but that doesn’t mean I’m not suffering.”

Neighbor Armando Bacigalupi described the owners as “caring people” and said he had seen buses park briefly in front of the house.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the company has two drivers for its three passenger motor coaches.

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Bachelorette Ashley Hebert and JP Rosenbaum are Married

Ashley Hebert is a bachelorette no more!

The 28-year-old dentist and her construction manager fiancé J.P. Rosenbaum, 35, walked down the aisle on Saturday in Pasadena, California, reports People Magazine.

The ceremony, officiated by Bachelor and Bachelorette host Chris Harrison, was attended by familiar faces from the series including Ali Fedotowsky, Emily Maynard, and Jason and Molly Mesnick.

Video: 'Bachelorette' Ashley Hebert and Fiance J.P.'s Passionate PDA

Ashley and J.P.'s exchanging of vows will be televised December 16 on a two-hour special on ABC.

The season seven sweeties will be the second Bachelorette couple ever to televise their walk down the aisle, following in the footsteps of Trista and Ryan Sutter, who married in December 2003.

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Grisly find in Brooklyn: Man, apparently beaten to death, found inside shopping cart

Theodore Parisienne

This body was found inside a tipped-over shopping cart and covered by a bag in Bed-Stuy today.

A man was found dead inside a tipped-over shopping cart in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, this morning, police said.

The unidentified victim, who appeared to have been beaten to death, was discovered around 4:30 a.m. in front of 750 Madison St., cops said. His body was partially covered by a camouflage bag.

He had trauma to the torso and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.

No arrests have been made, and cops are waiting for the medical examiner to determine a cause of death.

Investigators believe the victim died nearby and was abandoned by someone who tried to move him in the shopping cart and gave up after it tipped on its side, sources said.

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Boat Show may block Miami’s 2016 Super Bowl bid

This winter, the biggest NFL match-up in South Florida might be Super Bowl versus Boat Show.

As South Florida readies a bid for the 2016 Super Bowl, it must contend with a major potential conflict on the tourism calendar. The National Football League may move the Super Bowl to Presidents’ Day weekend, already home to the five-day Miami International Boat Show since the 1940s.

It’s a significant enough conflict that, in the past, local tourism officials have declined to pursue a Super Bowl if it fell on boat show weekend. But this time around they may have no choice. For the first time, the NFL is requiring that potential host cities agree to a Presidents’ Day weekend Super Bowl if they want to pursue the big game at all, said two people who have seen the NFL request for Super Bowl bids.

The NFL “invited South Florida [to bid] knowing there was going to be an issue with Presidents’ Day weekend and the boat show,” said Nicki Grossman, Broward’s tourism director. “In the past, South Florida has not responded to a Super Bowl date that included Presidents’ Day weekend. This package is different.”

South Florida vies with New Orleans as the top Super Bowl host, with government and tourism leaders touting the game as both a boon to the economy and a publicity bonanza. But the notion of accommodating both Super Bowl and boat show — not to mention a major arts festival in Coconut Grove — strikes some top tourism officials as a bad idea.

“There is not sufficient hotel inventory available in Miami that weekend to host a Super Bowl,” said William Talbert, president of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We have taken a close look at that weekend, and it’s not physically possible in Miami to host Super Bowl during the Presidents’ Day weekend because of the boat show and the Coconut Grove Arts Festival. The hotel inventory is all being used for these two great events.”

His comments are at odds with the region’s top Super Bowl organizer and reflect the burden that the boat show may be to South Florida’s Super Bowl hopes for 2016 and 2017. The NFL invited Miami and San Francisco to bid for the 2016 Super Bowl by April 1, with the loser vying with Houston for the 2017 game. Talbert said the bid package states both decisions will be made in May.

For now, South Florida’s Super Bowl organizers face a largely hypothetical challenge, because the current NFL schedule has the Super Bowl occurring two weeks before Presidents’ Day weekend. The bid requirements for the ’16 and ’17 Super Bowls include three consecutive weekends as possibilities for the game, with the latest falling on the Presidents’ Day holiday.

Still, possible logistical hurdles may combine with political obstacles if the Miami Dolphins resume their push for a tax-funded renovation of Sun Life Stadium, the Super Bowl’s South Florida home.

Last year, the Dolphins proposed that Broward and Miami-Dade counties subsidize a $225 million renovation at Sun Life as a way to keep the region competitive for Super Bowls and other large events. The renovation includes a partial roof that would prevent the kind of drenching Super Bowl spectators suffered in 2007 when a rare February downpour hit Miami Gardens.

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