BankruptcyMisconduct is once again shown to be clairvoyant. Traditional media are picking up on the inherent Conflict Of Interest issue involving Jones Day and the Detroit Bankruptcy case. Whenever you have bankruptcy lawyers with connections to involved banks, it can never go well.  Perhaps AfricanGlobe.net says it best, not merely exposing the outrageous fees but highlighting that simple and irrefutable recurring theme we whenever a bankruptcy filing is used as a tool for illicit enrichment: Conflict Of Interest. In the case of Detroit's bankruptcy filing, the unwaivable conflict prohibiting a just appointment of Jones Day arises by their pre-filing multi-million dollar legal services on matters directly related to the bankruptcy filing. To be clear, it's not necessary for Stephen Brogan's bankruptcy lawyers to have conspired with any third party, even former, existing or future clients, to criminally steer any small part of Detroit's bankruptcy case for their benefit. (And BankruptcyMisconduct does NOT mean to imply that they didn't crookedly do so!) It is NOT necessary for series of illicit crookedness by Bruce Bennett, as found by Judge Marilyn Morgan in SONICblue to have continued.

Nothing reveals more openly the criminal looting of Detroit by the wealthy elite than the hundred million dollars being paid out to well-connected law firms, accountants and consultancy businesses, which prepared the city’s bankruptcy.
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Well before they were awarded city contracts several of these firms were already employed by the state of Michigan. According to court documents, the Jones Day law firm provided more than 1,000 hours of consulting work for top Michigan state officials before being officially retained by the city as a “restructuring counsel” in March 2013. This included encouraging state officials in early 2012 to expedite a bankruptcy filing before voters could defeat the emergency manager law.

Orr and his advisers were so confident that the federal courts would approve the July 18 Chapter 9 petition that multi-million dollar and long-term contracts with advisory services were concluded well before the filing. Meanwhile, as the contract documents show, services such as analyses of Detroit’s financial condition, valuation of the city’s assets, the development of a restructuring plan and preparations for management of the bankruptcy process had long been underway

Being composed nearly completely by lawyers, Congress understood all too well how crooked lawyers could convert the unique bankruptcy protection mechanism of United States law into a crooked get-rich scheme if an equally unique and powerful prohibition against Conflict Of Interest was not made a pre-requisite.

So while many in the main stream media report that 'compromise with the banks' has been reached, only a few draw the connection between the conflicted lawyers in charge of it all actually cutting deals which benefit their banking buddies. Here we see Wallace Turbeville write at Demos.org :

The proposal includes a new provision that places the possible misdeeds surrounding the city's financial dealings squarely before the bankruptcy court by releasing the bank counterparties from liability in deals related to, but different from, the swaps. There may even be other undisclosed concessions in the settlement. Maybe this new settlement is not an improvement after all.

So, Jones Day does a 'favor' for UBS (oh, we love 'dem foreign banks), Bank of America and their wall street associates. So, not only do they avoid having their entire claims thrown out - their dirty derivative crimes won't see the light of day. You see Virginia, the bankruptcy courts are not merely used to shield crimes by Debtors and their management, our corrupted courts also shield crimes by certain connected creditors.

Bill Schuette is either too much of a dolt to even get this, or he's clever enough to know that the press won't dig deep enough and stay on it long enough for joe citizen to notice. The tragedy of it all is that Bill Schuette had the power, and explicit notice of the conflict history, to keep Jones Day completely out of the State Of Michigan in the first place. Who knows, maybe the pensioneers would have scored a few nickles more on their recoveries if the crooks didn't get away with it...

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The City of Detroit is next in play in the dirty game of BankruptcyMisconduct. It's time for Police, Firemen, and Teachers to bend over and kiss their hard worked for pensions goodbye. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad, but what more would you expect when the dirty lawyers who got themselves in charge of this fee frenzy have a spotless track record for favoritism towards their hidden hedge fund clients.

Anyone who hopes to collect on their pension is a fool if they let Kevyn Orr bring in his Jones Day cronies, dirty lawyers with a spotless track record taking care of their hidden hedge fund clients.

 

Baby Got Baggage

Anyone who wants a chance at understanding if he'll ever get his pension need only first understand that Kevyn Orr is joined at the hip with Jones Day. That is to say, they are "Associates". Anyone who knows anything about bankruptcy and reorganization knows that the sad reality is that conflict of interest rules all outcomes, that quid pro quo is the de facto business model, and that certain law firms have clear histories of caring more about their hidden and conflicted clients then about their own mothers.

 

Kevyn Orr, .... seriously!

Bill Schuette - Puts Himself In Play!

Read about William Duncan Schuette on his very own page here. It seems that the Attorney General for the State of Michigan has thrown his own hat into the ring. At this point, we can only hope that Bill will turn out to be man enough for it all. You can track Billy D's foray into the abyss that is the intersection of neo-justice and our bankruptcy system at our free downloads section on Detroit here. There will likely be so much for readers to enjoy on this Detroit thing.

Mr. Schuette has to face the dilemma of two competing forces: following his oath to the people of Michigan, or being mindfull of his legal & political career by paying homage to "professional courtesy" vis a vis the Jones Day lawyers - out of state lawyers who are being allowed to visit and work under the strict rules of Pro Hac Vice - which BankruptcyMisconduct points out is a double edged sword. All misdeeds by the Jones Day lawyers are in play for Schuette to review, and we can only hope the prosecutorial discretion does not cloak the dirt of Bennett and his dirty bretheren in the law firm with sooo many hedge fund clients.

Keep reading our pages, as we may offer some interesting ideas that could help.