Syncora, the bond insurer described as the leading opponent to the city's bankruptcy, has won access to documents shared between the DIA and the state's attorney general, Matt Helms reports at the Free Press.
Syncora stands to lose close to a quarter-billion dollars in the Detroit bankruptcy in a deal hammered out during the Kwame Kilpatrick-era.
The firm convinced Judge Steven Rhodes that it shoiuld see communications from a two-month period made last summer between the office of Attorney General Bill Schuette’s and the art museum, according to Helms.
The period covers a time that the DIA "sought an opinion from the state’s top lawyer on whether the museum is protected from liquidation in bankruptcy."
Syncora has pushed for the sale of DIA assets to pay off creditors in the past.
Writes Helms:
"Syncora has been among the most strident creditors seeking the sale of DIA assets to reduce losses to the city’s creditors. Rhodes ruled Monday that documents Syncora wants to review are not subject to privilege because they were shared between Schuette’s office and the DIA...
"Syncora lawyer Stephen Hackney argued in court Monday that a full valuation of the DIA’s art “could represent a substantial recovery for all creditors” and called for transparency in how the museum’s assets were evaluated, “so people understand why the decision is being made.” He said the attorney general’s office objected to releasing the documents Syncora sought several weeks ago under subpoena."
For his part, Judge Rhodes says the possible sale of DIA art is “an issue that has not been prejudged or determined by the court.” Still, he says, a full valuation of DIA assets “is a substantial issue in the case.”
-Danny Fenster
