Lehman Brothers

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck brought a ruling that Bank of America Corp should return $500 million of deposits it seized from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc shortly after Lehman's bankruptcy. The judge said that Bank of America violated federal law when it "brazenly" seized the deposits after having taken advantage of Lehman's weakened condition in the summer of 2008 in obtaining the money.

24 large financial institutions and insurers in the United States will be required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to provide detailed reports about their use of repurchase agreements and their accounting and disclosure of these transactions.

The regulator is sending letters to the chief financial officers about these institutions in a move to uncover any accounting tricks like the "Repo 105" method Lehman Brothers used to mask its losses.

Lehman Brothers settles about $7.68 billion in collateral claims with JPMorgan Chase & Co concerning. According to the court documents, these claims were pending following Lehman's bankruptcy filing in 2008. 

Despite, the collateral posted by Lehman had a face value in the billions of dollars, it consisted of illiquid securities whose actual value was difficult to ascertain, as court documents show.

Lehman Brothers International reported Tuesday that almost all the clients whose assets have been frozen since the investment bank's contraction support the intension to return the money early next year.

In November PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC.UL sketched out a plan to return about $11 billion held in custody by March 2010. This scheme required 90% of Lehman's clients to approve the plan by December 29.

As PricewaterhouseCoopers, administrators for bankrupt Lehman's London-based unit, announced on Monday Lehman Brothers International, that has over $35 billion of hedge fund assets frozen since the bank's recession last September, indents to pay back about $11 billion to fund managers by March in case 90% of Lehman's clients approve the new plan.

According to the Bloomberg Thursday reported, BofA is selling a claim with a face value of about $800 million that it holds against bankrupt Lehman Brothers. Hedge funds are also the likely buyers. 

 Over 16,000 claims against Lehman by September 22 deadline had been submitted by creditors from sovereign wealth funds to sports teams. 

 Bank of America filed a $2.86 billion claim, and its Merrill Lynch International unit filed one for $1.54 billion. 

 The administrator for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc plans to seek permission to remove the claims against the bank from British courts and give out assets directly to creditors, the Wall Street Journal said, citing a joint administrator for the collapsed investment bank.

 IMF (Australia) Ltd reported that an Australian court permitted investors to pursue financial claims against collapsed U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in Australia and elsewhere. Now town councils and others which had lost money in collateralized debt obligations marketed and issued by Lehman can submit legal claims to recover their losses.