Lehman | ICT magazine

Posts Tagged ‘lehman’

Ernst & Young sued over Lehman: Going for the auditors

December 29th, 2010 | No Comments

The ultimate target of the lawsuit may be Lehman’s former bosses

WAS the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 aided by a fraudulent cover-up of balance-sheet shenanigans? Andrew Cuomo, New York’s outgoing attorney-general and incoming state governor, thinks so, and has filed suit against Ernst & Young, Lehman’s auditors.

Mr Cuomo alleges that E&Y committed fraud by signing off on an accounting manoeuvre used by Lehman, known as Repo 105. Under this scheme, towards the end of each quarter Lehman temporarily swapped some of its assets for cash with another bank or investor, but booked this as if it were a permanent sale of the assets. By doing this, it and the other banks that used this manoeuvre in the run-up to the credit crunch made themselves look less indebted in their quarterly results. …

New York Sues Accounting Giant Ernst & Young for Fraud in Connection with Lehman’s Repo 105, But the ENTIRE American Economy is a Ponzi Scheme

December 20th, 2010 | No Comments

New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo is about to charge Lehman’s accountants, Ernst & Young, with fraud for allowing Lehman to cook its books using the infamous “Repo 105″ shell game. This comes only weeks after a Lehman retirement fund sued Leh…

DBS Hong Kong to pay $115m in Lehman settlement

July 14th, 2010 | No Comments

DBS Hong Kong, a unit of DBS Group Holdings (DBSM.SI), will pay out a combined HK$651 million ($115 million) to some buyers of Lehman Brothers constellation notes, the territory’s financial regulator said on Wednesday.

Customers classified by the bank as having a low to medium risk profile would receive their money returned plus interest that would have been payable had it been placed in a fixed-term deposit, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission said in a statement.

Proof that Regulators Knew of and Allowed Debt-Hiding Accounting Tricks Like Lehman’s Repo 105

April 5th, 2010 | No Comments

Regulators like the Fed and SEC have said they didn’t know about Lehman’s use of Repo 105s to hide its mountain of debt.But in a must-read New York Times Op-Ed, law school professors Susan P. Koniak, George M. Cohen, David A. Dana, and Thomas Ross poi…

Oh, brother

March 12th, 2010 | No Comments

Shining a harsh light on Lehman’s bankruptcy

IT SOUNDS distinctly unpromising. A nine-volume, 2,200-page report by a court-appointed examiner into the causes of Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, published on Thursday March 11th, has a table of contents that lasts for 38 pages. Its most exciting finding relates to an off-balance-sheet accounting gimmick. But the work of Anton Valukas, the chairman of Jenner & Block, a law firm, is crisp, clear and explosive.

Mr Valukas and his team took more than a year to research their report. They collected more than 5m documents and reviewed an estimated 34m pages of information. Looking at Lehman’s IT systems was a particular challenge. The firm had a rat’s nest of more than 2,600 systems and applications at the time it went bust; Mr Valukas boiled that down to the 96 most relevant ones, some of which are now operated by Barclays (the buyer of Lehman’s American arm after the holding company failed). He also conducted more than 250 informal interviews, many of them with Lehman’s directors and most senior executives. …

Lehman Fraudulently Cooked Its Books, Accounting Giant Ernst & Young Helped, Geithner and Bernanke Winked and Slapped Them on the Back

March 12th, 2010 | No Comments

As William K. Black said a year ago, the government’s entire strategy now – as in the S&L crisis – is to cover up how bad things are (“the entire strategy is to keep people from getting the facts”).Paul Krugman and others pointed out that Geithne…

Singaporeans to recover whatâ€™s left of Lehman notes

October 1st, 2009 | No Comments

Singapore investors, who bought structured notes linked to failed US investment bank Lehman Brothers, may recover what is left of their investments after the receiver gained control of the notes’ underlying assets.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), acting on behalf of Singapore investors who had bought the so-called “Minibonds”, said today it has reached a deal with Lehman Brothers Special Financing Inc, the swap counterparty for the Minibonds, to take over assets backing these notes.

PWC “can commence the process of realising the residual value of the notes without the risks and uncertainties of complex, costly litigation,” it said.

Australian court ruling opens door to Lehman claims

September 28th, 2009 | No Comments

An Australian court has ruled that local governments can pursue financial claims against collapsed US investment bank Lehman Brothers in Australia and elsewhere, a firm that is funding the litigation said on Monday. IMF (Australia) said the Federal Court ruled on Friday in favour of

Bear bar

September 17th, 2009 | No Comments

Lehman one year on, from the bottom of a glass

THE Playwright Tavern is across the street from the Barclays Capital building, on 49th St and 7th Avenue in Manhattan. Barclays’ building used to belong to Lehman Brothers; when Lehman filed for bankruptcy and Barclays purchased the company last September, the animated LED screens that wrap the building adopted their new owner’s name and colours.

The Playwright, 75 metres from the bank’s front door, was a time-honoured gathering place for Lehman’s employees. Its restaurant was often completely full at lunch, and after five o’clock the bar would crowd to capacity. …

The promised bland

September 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Barack Obama marks a year since the collapse of Lehman Brothers with a speech to Wall Street

“THIS sucker could go down.” George Bush’s verdict during the worst of the financial crisis a year ago was crude but penetrating. Barack Obama, delivering a speech in New York on September 14th to mark the anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ failure, managed the opposite trick. He produced plenty of elegant phrases but little that was new, and quite a bit that was confusing.

To be fair, this was not an occasion for detailed policy pronouncements. The big areas of financial reform have been endlessly rehearsed in speeches, summits and papers (which may explain why the occasion felt a little flat). This was more about applying a bit of presidential pressure. By sketching out the rationale behind his principal legislative proposals—a systemic-risk regulator, a new consumer-protection agency, the need for strong capital and better resolution regimes—he reminded Congress that health care is not his only priority. He also used his time at the podium to chide bonus-hungry bankers for failing to learn the lessons of Lehman. …

David Fiderer: Hank Paulson Rewrites History Before Congress

July 18th, 2009 | No Comments

The fallout of Paulson’s two disastrous decisions (to let Lehman fail and reverse his position on foreclosure relief) prompted the former Treasury Secretary to abuse his powers, with some not-so-veiled threats.

P.G. Sittenfeld: From Lehman to Landscaping: A Laid-Off Banker, One Year Later

July 13th, 2009 | No Comments

After losing my job, I watched Lehman’s stock price until the whole ship went under last fall. I needed a new source of income, so I moved to Dublin, Ohio to work for a lawn care company.