http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE63D57U20100414?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=trueLehman examiner full report adds pieces to puzzle
By Emily Chasan and Dan Margolies
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - From accounting gimmicks to flummoxed risk managers, newly released documents gathered by the court-appointed examiner of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc shed fresh light on some of the factors that propelled the bank to bankruptcy.
But some of the most widely sought pieces of the investigation were still missing: the depositions of former Chief Executive Richard Fuld and other key figures at the bank.
Examiner Anton Valukas, chairman of law firm Jenner & Block, told Reuters that none of the interviews and depositions will be released, ever.
"There are a multitude of reasons" they will remain sealed, he said, without elaborating. He declined to comment on whether the decision to keep them under seal might relate to ongoing investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission or the Department of Justice.
Earlier on Wednesday, Barclays Bank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, and Chicago-based trading firms Citadel LP and DRW Trading were identified as the firms asked to participate in an emergency auction of Lehman's futures positions as firm lurched toward bankruptcy in September 2008.That disclosure was the final part of the examiner's report to be made public as exchange operator CME Group lost a bid in bankruptcy court to keep the identities of the companies secret.
The report concluded "that an argument can be made that the transfers at issue were fraudulent transfers," noting that Lehman lost $1.2 billion in the sale of a $2 billion portfolio to Barclays, Goldman and DRW.CME Group, with the support of the futures industry, had sought to withhold the names of buyers of Lehman's former futures and options positions in a special auction conducted by CME in the midst of Lehman's 2008 collapse.
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