Treasury Didn’t Tell Puerto Rico to Default, Lawyer Says
- Cleary Gottlieb’s Richard Cooper comments at conference
- General-obligation default in July was largest in muni market
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U.S. Treasury officials didn’t tell Puerto Rico to default on general-obligation bond payments, according to a lawyer representing the island in its $70 billion debt restructuring.
“At least in my experience, U.S. Treasury doesn’t say to the commonwealth ‘do x or y,’ " Richard Cooper, a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, said Tuesday during a Puerto Rico conference at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in New York. “That is ultimately, I think fueled, by creditors speculating for their own purposes.”