Foreclosures, fraud & the big fight – Metro Times article

Rallied neighborhoods, picketed banks, blocked Dumpsters, packed courtrooms

Jerry Goldberg (l) and David Sole (r) want Detroit’s bond records.
Jerry Goldberg (l) and David Sole (r) want Detroit’s bond records. Photo by Curt Guyette, Metro Times
(l-r) Steve Babson,Angela Crockett and Ray Mandry talk about beating the banks. Photo by Curt Guyette
(l-r) Steve Babson,Angela Crockett and Ray Mandry talk about beating the banks. Photo by Curt Guyette

By Curt Guyette

Two events held last week appeared only tangentially connected — at first glance, anyway.

The first was a rally held by a coalition focused on helping homeowners fend off foreclosure and eviction. The other was a press conference on the fifth floor of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, outside the offices of the city of Detroit’s Law Department.

In regard to the latter, a Freedom of Information Act request has been filed seeking to have the city turn over 10 years’ worth of records related to all contracts and agreements between the city and “banks or brokerage houses relating to the purchase of bonds, interest rate swaps, pension obligation certificates, hedge fund derivatives, termination or default agreements, or other forms of debt…”

The request was initially filed in early January by David Sole, a retired city of Detroit employee, but it is really part of a larger group effort aimed at finding out exactly how banks and bonding agencies have been putting the screws to Detroit through a series of complicated and convoluted financial machinations.

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