Chrysler, Merrill CEOs Passed Houses to Wives, Too

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»

James Stewart on the week that Lehman failed, and meltdown loomed

(NEWSER) - James Stewart’s reconstruction of the 8 nail-biting days, a year ago, in which the federal government stepped in to stop the collapse of the world financial system—published in the New Yorker this week, just as Fed chief Ben Bernanke was declaring the recession officially over—makes riveting, tense reading. “I don’t think I can take another day of this,” one banker says getting out of the Goldman Sachs car on Day 4. “You’re getting out of a Mercedes to go to the New York Federal Reserve,” snaps Bernanke. “You’re not getting out of a Higgins Boat on Omaha Beach.” Not quite, at least. More»

Lehman's last CEO steels himself for anniversary of firm's collapse

(NEWSER) - Former Lehman CEO Richard Fuld is ready to get dumped on again as the anniversary of the company's collapse nears, he told a Reuters reporter. Fuld was widely blamed for leading Lehman into the biggest bankruptcy in US history, although former execs are still bitter that rivals Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were either married off or bailed out. "They're looking for someone to dump on now, and that's me," Fuld said. "You know what they say? 'This too shall pass.'" More»

(NEWSER) - It's not been the best of years for the titans of Wall Street: a few federal bailouts, a housing collapse, and now a Ponzi scheme of mind-boggling proportions can do that. "Where did all that money go?" wonders the website wowOwow.com. And it has a partial answer: Straight into the mansions of bigwigs such as Bernard Madoff, Richard Fuld, and Daniel Mudd. For an aerial tour of their digs, along with a few others, click on the link below. More»

Directors unlikely to comply given public sentiment

(NEWSER) - Merrill Lynch narrowly escaped extinction this fall, and CEO John Thain is seeking an end-of-year bonus of as much as $10 million for keeping the company alive, reports the Wall Street Journal. Merrill's board of directors—acutely aware of public scrutiny—appear unlikely to fork over that kind of package when they meet today. Goldman Sachs, which performed better than Merrill this year, isn't giving top execs any bonuses this year. More»