Sean Werdlow (Facebook photo)
Kwame Kilpatrick is long gone from city hall, but the actions during his reign as mayor are still raising eyebrows and plenty questions.
Robert Snell and Chad Livengood of The Detroit News report that city lawyers have some questions for one of Kilpatrick's appointees linked to the city pensions.
The News writes:
City lawyers trying to terminate a $1.4-billion pension deal blamed for plunging Detroit into bankruptcy want to question the deal’s architect, a former Kwame Kilpatrick appointee, about his relationship with a banker whose firm profited from the deal.
The lawyers want to know why Kilpatrick’s finance chief, Sean Werdlow, resigned in November 2005 and joined SBS Financial Products Co., which according to a lawsuit filed by the city was one of the municipal investment banks that engineered the pension deal. The firm was created by an investment bank headed by Suzanne Shank, who recently bought a 6,000-square-foot, multimillion-dollar home with Werdlow..
If anything, the romantic and financial entanglements smell fishy.
Bill Nowlling, a spokesman for Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, stops just short of being accusatory. But he tells the News:
“The timing of Mr. Werdlow’s move ... raises questions. This is not a suggestion of any wrongdoing."
The latter part of his statement may be thrown in there for legal purposes.
But it sure sounds like the city is suspicious of wrongdoing.
Werdlow called the questions surrounding his relationship with Shank a a “low blow and cheap shot," according to the News report -- Allan Lengel
