Justice Barbara Kapnick may have refused to allow a full-blown bench trial on claims that New York’s insurance department let MBIA Inc. pull a fast one on its structured finance policyholders, but Bank of America and Société Générale tried to make the most of opening arguments in Manhattan state court on Tuesday.
“This case matters to every policyholder of a New York regulated insurance company,” said the banks’ lead lawyer, Sullivan & Cromwell’s Robert Giuffa Jr., according to the New York Law Journal’s Brendan Pierson. Giuffra vowed to show that state regulators never should have approved MBIA’s February 2009 restructuring. “There’s always tracks that are left behind when people aren’t following the law,” he said.
