Meet Detroit's leading bankruptcy opponent (and it's not pensioners)

An obscure but combative insurance company deeply entangled in Detroit’s financial problems has become one of the city’s fiercest foes in Bankruptcy Court, presenting a stiff legal obstacle to the city’s restructuring plans.

The bond insurer — a Bermuda-based holding company generally referred to as Syncora — has good reason to fight: Its own existence was believed to be at stake at one point during the bankruptcy.

Syncora could lose nearly a quarter-billion dollars on Detroit’s bankruptcy, according to financial filings reviewed by the Free Press — in large part because it guaranteed payments on a $1.4 billion debt deal engineered in 2005 by then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick that the city is now trying to completely wipe out.

Syncora has filed objections to virtually every major Detroit restructuring proposal so far — with the notable exception of the city’s eligibility for bankruptcy.

full: http://www.freep.com/article/20140428/NEWS01/304280018/Detroit-bankruptcy-Syncora-Financial-Guaranty-Insurance-Co-FGIC-Kevyn-Orr-Stephen-Hackney-Jones-Day-Kirkland-Ellis