CHICAGO -- Continuing its quest for documents tied to the sale of $1.4 billion of certificates of participation, Detroit said it
The bankrupt city said July 3 it will subpoena Siebert Brandford Shank & Co., LLC, a co-manager on the original sale and one of the banks that acted as counterparty on the interest-rate swaps that hedged the certificates.
The city also wants information from John Kamins, a public finance attorney with Foster Swift Collins & Smith PC, who worked on the original deal, as well as Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP.
Honigman served as underwriter's counsel on the 2005 sale.
Lewis & Munday PC was bond counsel.
Detroit has filed a lawsuit to invalidate the COPs, saying that the original deal was illegal because it exceeded the city's debt limits and lacked state authority.
The city earlier said it would seek documents Sean Werdlow, who was Detroit's finance chief in 2005, and later moved to Siebert. Detroit's attorneys said they want information related to Werdlow's employment, including negotiations over terms.
The court filing announcing the subpoena came a day after the city said it would subpoena the Bond Buyer for information on the paper's decision to give the transaction the Midwest Deal of the Year award in 2005.
Detroit has asked for a broad range of documents tied to the deal, including documents sent to, written by or received from Lewis & Munday, Honigman, Miller Canfield PLC, and Dickinson Wright PLLC as well as attorneys such as Allen Bass, an attorney from Lewis & Munday, and others.
The subpoena also asks for all drafts of documents of law on the COPs transaction, including memos from the law firms to Werdlow and communications with UBS Financial Services Inc.
UBS Financial Services Inc. was the book-running senior manager on the 2005 transaction. Robert W. Baird & Co. and Scott Balice Strategies worked as co-financial advisors. Mayer Brown Rowe and Maw worked as special tax counsel.
The co-senior managers on the Series A certificates included Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co., Siebert, Loop Capital Markets, and Morgan Stanley. Twelve co-managers worked to market the Series A certificates.
Loop, Merrill, and Morgan Stanley worked as the co-senior managers for the Series B floating-rate certificates, including a Libor-indexed swap.
Siebert also was a co-senior manager, with UBS, of a 2006 restructuring of the COPs.
