A U.S. appeals court gave Argentina's spurned bondholders a substantial $1.4 billion victory on Friday in their lengthy legal battle to collect debts unpaid since the country's world-record 2001 default.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan unanimously rejected every Argentine argument, saying the country had failed to provide any proof that "cataclysmic repercussions" could result if it's forced to keep the promises it made in its 1990s bond contracts.