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U.K.'s Brown Wants Lehman To Return Money to London Units
Wall Street Journal ^ | 9/20/08 | ALISTAIR MACDONALD and CARRICK MOLLENKAMP

Posted on 09/20/2008 7:11:29 PM PDT by BurbankKarl

U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Saturday that he is working with U.S. authorities to get billions of dollars returned to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s London operations from the firm's U.S. business.

Responding to questions at the start of his Labour Party's conference, Mr. Brown said he wanted to make sure the money was returned in the interest of the investment bank's U.K. employees.

The transfer of $8 billion has become a target of inquiry by Lehman clients as well as PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, which is overseeing the insolvency proceedings of Lehman units in London.

Within the past several days, PricewaterhouseCoopers sent a letter to a Lehman U.S. unit to seek repayment of the money. At least two Lehman clients have said in court filings that Lehman's bankruptcy proceedings moved so quickly that there wasn't enough time to assess Lehman money flows before Lehman filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 15.

Lehman subsequently reached an agreement to sell the bulk of its North American operations to the U.K.'s Barclays PLC.

Mr. Brown's move to reclaim the money comes amid the growing realization that Lehman's London operations appear to have been left without adequate funding when the parent firm filed for bankruptcy.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: banks; barclays; financialcrisis; gordonbrown; lehmanbrothers

1 posted on 09/20/2008 7:11:29 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
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To: BurbankKarl

Get in line with the rest of the people holding the bag.


2 posted on 09/20/2008 7:15:05 PM PDT by Always Right (Obama: more arrogant than Bill Clinton, more naive than Jimmy Carter, and more liberal than LBJ.)
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To: BurbankKarl

Tell Brown to file suit in one of those new UK Sharia courts.


3 posted on 09/20/2008 7:16:26 PM PDT by KingSnorky
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To: BurbankKarl

Thought this was interesting...

Mark Hawthorne
September 18, 2008

LEHMAN Brothers’ collapse sent shockwaves through global markets, but not all are lamenting the demise of the 158-year-old Wall Street bank. Emails buzzed between the world’s climate change sceptics on news of Lehman’s fall - the bank played a big role in what the radical right thinks is a climate change scam.

Australia’s climate change sceptics communicate through an online group called Climatescience and contribute to the climate-sceptic website www.icecap.us.

The reason for the excitement was Lehman’s role in carbon trading. Al Gore’s carbon trading business, Generation Investment Management, which he founded with former Goldman Sachs executive David Blood, banked with Lehman. Just what effect the Lehman bankruptcy has on Blood and Gore’s balance sheet is yet to be revealed.

In addition, two Lehman reports from last year have been central to convincing governments, media and business of the need for a global carbon trading scheme to limit greenhouse gas emissions. In them, Lehman Brothers makes predictions about the climate in 2100, provides projections for climate change costs and suggests possible trends in the carbon market for the next 50 years.

Impressive stuff, except, as has been pointed out, Lehman should have been more concerned with existing markets rather than phantom ones.

“A year ago they couldn’t predict their bankruptcy, but were predicting the climate

100 years ahead,” crowed one climate change sceptic. “Thousands of green militants have been using the Lehman report as a proof of global warming and impending chaos. Lehman Bros said it! Sacred words!”

http://business.theage.com.au/business/banks-burnup-warms-climate-sceptics-20080917-4io3.html


4 posted on 09/20/2008 7:21:09 PM PDT by TribalPrincess2U (McCAIN/PALIN...THE CHANGE AMERICANS REALLY WANT—OBAMA..THE CHANGE THE WORLD'S TERRORISTS WANT)
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To: TribalPrincess2U

CRAP! Sorry for not using shorter lines.
I hate foot wide copy.


5 posted on 09/20/2008 7:21:55 PM PDT by TribalPrincess2U (McCAIN/PALIN...THE CHANGE AMERICANS REALLY WANT—OBAMA..THE CHANGE THE WORLD'S TERRORISTS WANT)
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To: BurbankKarl

Mr. Brown...please access a dictionary and look up “bankrupt”.

Thank you


6 posted on 09/20/2008 7:30:41 PM PDT by berdie
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To: berdie

Not if its UK money.


7 posted on 09/20/2008 7:36:15 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
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To: BurbankKarl

There are no bankruptcy laws in the UK?


8 posted on 09/20/2008 8:05:55 PM PDT by berdie
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To: BurbankKarl
While the CEO and his top dogs are going to land softly in their gilded parchutes, they left the London outfit without even enough money to pay their employees this month. And it was a willful taking, too.

Bastards.

9 posted on 09/20/2008 8:16:15 PM PDT by Texas_shutterbug
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To: BurbankKarl
Missing: The reason why UK sent the money to Lehman.

Anybody know?

10 posted on 09/20/2008 8:19:32 PM PDT by Rudder
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To: Rudder

You know, I read about that somewhere, but it was obviously set up so that they would file for bankruptcy and not have to send it back - leaving the employees without paychecks. If I remember where I read that, I’ll post it. (Probably the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, or one of the UK papers.)


11 posted on 09/20/2008 9:13:36 PM PDT by Texas_shutterbug
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To: Texas_shutterbug
Ah, a little skulduggery in the works...

I'm interested in what you find. Thanks.

12 posted on 09/20/2008 9:23:33 PM PDT by Rudder
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