Syncora Guaratee Inc., one of the more combative creditors in Detroit's bankruptcy, which stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars, isn't scoring any points with U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes.
Chad Livengood of the Detroit News reports that on Thursday the judge criticized Syncora's blistering “personal attack” on Detroit’s chief bankruptcy mediator, U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen, and ordered the creditor’s attorneys to prove why they shouldn’t face professional sanctions.
Syncora is a bond insurer that backed $400 million in city debt. It is being asked to write off at least 90 percent of that obligation and its fighting to get a lot more back.
Livengood writes:
Rhodes struck from Detroit’s bankruptcy record Syncora Guarantee Inc.’s blistering Aug. 12 objection in which the bond insurer accused Chief District Judge Gerald Rosen and mediator-attorney Eugene Driker of having “naked favoritism” toward retirees.
Syncora accused Rosen and Driker of being “agenda driven, conflicted mediators who colluded with certain interested parties to benefit select favored creditors to the gross detriment of disfavored creditors.”
Rhodes ordered that the creditor’s objection be struck from the public record, the News reported.
Syncora has opposed the so called grand bargain that would save the art at the Detroit Institute of Art and ease pension cuts for city workers. -- Allan Lengel
