Remember when Lehman went bankrupt? Good times. The thing about that was that pretty much right up until the minute Lehman filed, people like Dick Fuld and Erin Callan were going around saying things like “we stand extremely well capitalized to take advantage of these new opportunities” and “[w]e have maintained our strong liquidity and capital profiles even in this difficult environment.”
Knowing what happened next, some people thought that was kind of fucked up of them. And so a team of spoilsports including among other luminaries the Northern Ireland Local Government Officers’ Superannuation Committee sued Fuld, Callan, Joe Gregory, and a bunch of enablers like Ernst & Young (Lehman’s auditors) and UBS (who underwrote a lot of Lehman structured note offerings).
Today a federal court ruled on a motion to dismiss. It’s mostly bad news for Fuld, Callan & co., as the court let the lawsuit proceed on most of the important claims, including claims that Lehman misrepresented its net leverage using “Repo 105” transactions, lied about its “strong risk management culture with regard to the setting of risk limits” by repeatedly exceeding those limits, and misrepresented its credit-risk concentration in real estate.
But some bits of the ruling should make the ex-Lehman crowd happy: Continue reading »
It could also be interpreted as the greatest veiled threat since Angelo Mozilo said Bank of America “will reap the benefits of what [Countrywide] has sowed.” Continue reading »
“The bubble in America was caused by some combination of megalomania, insanity and evil in, I would say, investment banking, mortgage banking,” Munger, 87, said today at a conference in Pasadena, California…“I would guess that Dick Fuld has not a single ounce of contrition wherever he sits today,” Munger said. [Bloomberg]
Will Dick Fuld (who Woods plays in the movie) heed this advice and set the DVR? Continue reading »
According to Charlie Gasparino, who’s been tailing him. Continue reading »
Here’s what the Don said last night on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” when asked about mingling with sauced up members of the business community:
“There’s a banker — and obviously I’m not going to mention names…I’ll never forget a very respected banker, highly respected. And he was making a speech at the Waldorf Astoria. And he was very tipsy, very — and shortly thereafter, he was just totally stone cold drunk. There were probably 2,000 people, 1,500 people at this dinner. It was a very big event. And we carried him out on his back. We carried him out literally on his back and — And I never felt the same way about him.
Trump went on to say he can’t even look at the guy anymore and that he’s “lost all respect” for him. Choking back tears**, Trump wouldn’t say who his fallen hero is or if he had to hold the guy’s hair back as he vomited on the street corner but he did offer one more clue. Continue reading »
In fact, James Woods isn’t sure the economy can be saved at all, an outlook with which his girlfriend silently agrees. Continue reading »
“A metal sign — this one commemorating the opening of the London headquarters in 2004 by Gordon Brown, who was the chancellor of the exchequer at the time — was expected to bring up to £1,500. But it sold for £28,750 ($45,466) to another anonymous bidder on the telephone. Also for sale was a sign with Lehman Brothers’ mission statement. It read, “We are one firm defined by our unwavering commitment to our clients, our shareholders and each other.” That, together with another Lehman sign, sold for £13,750, or $21,744.”
Lehman Memories Sold Off Piece By Piece At Auction [NYT]
Geoffrey Raymond, the greatest artist of our time is releasing the Liquidated Fuld and has requested annotations. If you’re not a former Lehman employee but still have something you’d like to get off your chest, feel free, Raymond only asks that ex-Brothers identify themselves as such so that he can put their love notes in a different color so they can be clearly identified by Fuld.
“There was no capital hole. Lehman had the capital. We needed the liquidity.” [DI]
