Lehman Brothers former CEO Richard Fuld spent an uncomfortable afternoon on Capitol Hill being accused of various accounting improprieties by lawmakers, regulators, a bankruptcy examiner and a former employee.
Fuld tried to defend his role during testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, while claiming he knew nothing about the by now infamous Repo 105 transactions, in which the bank temporarily shifted $50 billion off its balance sheet at the end of the first and second quarters of 2008. As CEO, I ran more of a what do I really need to be focused on? mentality, he explained, according to
However, bankruptcy examiner Anton Valukas testified that Fuld must have been aware of the dubious transactions. A fact-finder concluded that he in fact did know and acted upon information he knew or should have known, Valukas said, according to
Matthew Lee, an accountant and former senior vice president at Lehman who tried to blow the whistle on the dubious transactions, was fired by the bank before its collapse. He provided emotional testimony as Fuld sat in the room. I think the public were misled as to the true leverage of Lehman, he said.
Lehmans practices were also blasted by former banking regulator William Black, who commented, Lehman was the leading purveyor of liars loans in the world, he said, according to the
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has sent a