Lehman’s Collapse: Executives and Accountants Faulted

An article by Francesco Guerrera, Nicole Bullock and Henny Sender at ft.com discusses a report by the court-appointed examiner Anton Valukas looking into the collapse of Lehman Brothers (LEHMQ.PK) in September of 2008. The article says: [INDENT]The hard-hitting report found evidence that Mr Fuld and Christopher O?Meara, Erin Callan and Ian Lowitt, who were chief financial officers of Lehman during its last days, failed to disclose the use of an accounting device that enabled the bank to hold $50bn off its balance sheet in both the first and second quarter of 2008. [/INDENT]Citigroup (C) and JP Morgan Chase (JPM) are also reported to have contributed to the collapse by pressuring Lehman for collateral in the final months. The article also faults Lehman's accountants, Ernst & Young, for laxity. Several of the parties named in the Valukas report have issued statements denying any wrongdoing. My take away from this is the major difference between the accounting decepti...