Lehman CEO Sells Mansion to Wife—for $100

Conservationists thwarted developers' plans for Islandia

(NEWSER) - Florida's smallest city, which spans 33 islands at the north end of the Florida Keys and is home to many more manatees than people, is about to be wiped off the map. The city of Islandia only ever really existed in the minds of developers, who declared it a municipality in 1961 amid plans to blanket the pristine islands in beachfront homes, luxury hotels, and shopping centers, the New York Times finds in a look at the sham city's colorful past. Florida discovered years ago that the town's government had long been illegal and all of its municipal officials—including its first mayor, a former bootlegger—were landowners who lived off the islands and elected themselves in votes held in Miami. County commissioners are expected to abolish the city in a vote next month. More»

Financial giants refuse to die, Steven Davidoff explains

(NEWSER) - You might remember Lehman Brothers from its starring role in kicking off 2008's financial crisis by declaring bankruptcy, and hence, you might think it is dead and buried. But you'd be wrong, writes Steven Davidoff in the New York Times : Lehman is actually still shambling around, zombie-like, and what's more, it's trying to get bigger. Courts are still trying to work through Lehman's bankruptcy, the biggest in history, and in the meantime Lehman's estate is trying to buy apartment firm Archstone-Smith. More»

(USER SUBMITTED) - In a remarkable case of the pot calling the kettle black, Lehman Brothers' former CEO Richard Fuld pointed a finger at the US Federal reserve today, saying it worsened the financial crisis in September 2008. Testifying at a hearing, Fuld blamed the Fed for letting the investment bank fail. He said, “Only Lehman was denied that expanded access” that would have allowed for a more orderly wind-down of its business. Fuld continues to deny that the bank took too much risk and hid its true financial condition through off-balance-sheet financing. More»

Only some of them actually made money for shareholders

(NEWSER) - Maybe those giant executive pay packages weren’t such great ideas after all. Of the eleven highest paid executives of the last decade, five presided over companies that lost their shareholders money, the Wall Street Journal reveals today, breaking down the numbers to reveal who the decade was most generous to. Among them? Richard Fuld (No. 11, $457 million), who presided over the downfall of Lehman Brothers. More»

Execs may land in court for disguising bad investments

(NEWSER) - Lehman Brothers tried to buy itself time by manipulating accounting gimmicks to disguise its bad investments, according to a court-ordered report on the firm's demise. The exhaustive, 2,200 page report found that execs, including former CEO Richard Fuld, could be held legally liable for the "materially misleading" attempt to disguise the state of its finances ahead of its collapse in 2008, the Guardian reports. More»