Washington- The US Supreme Court refused Monday, to hear appeals by Argentina that seek to overturn a judgment requiring it to pay more than $1.3 billion “vulture fund” investors in its defaulted bonds.

The nine justices made no comment, but their decision effectively upholds an appeals court ruling in August 2013 that ordered Argentina to pay in full creditors NML Capital and Aurelius Management, which had refused to participate in the restructuring of debt on which Buenos Aires defaulted in 2001.

Argentina defaulted on $95 billion of bonds in 2001. While about 93 percent of creditors accepted losses of 70 cents on the dollar in the country’s 2005 and 2010 debt restructurings, holdout investors including hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. sued for full repayment and won.

Lawyers for Argentina said that full payment would cut the country’s reserves roughly in half. They also said that lower courts which ruled against Argentina were ignoring federal law that generally protects other nations in American courts and could make U.S. assets more vulnerable to lawsuits filed abroad.

Singer won a judgment of $1.3 billion plus interest in the debt dispute, but has never been able to collect despite sending lawyers around the world to try to seize Argentine assets.

The courts in New York accepted his argument that Argentina has been a deadbeat nation and a serial violator of U.S. court rulings.