Fury at U.S. Lehman Brothers’ staff who could net £1.4bn in bonuses as UK employees face bleak future

UK Daily Mail
Monday, Sept 22, 2008

Lehman Brothers staff could enjoy bonuses worth more than a billion pounds despite the investment bank’s collapse.

The rewards lined up for U.S. workers caused fury in London, where thousands of employees are facing a bleak future after Lehman filed for bankruptcy.

Administrators winding up Lehman’s European business have discovered £4.4billion was transferred to New York just before the bank collapsed.

PricewaterhouseCoopers want the money to be returned - a call which was backed by Gordon Brown.

The blockbuster bonuses for U.S. staff were secured after UK lender Barclays snapped up Lehman’s American operations and took on 10,000 employees.

As part of the deal, a $2.5billion (£1.4billion) bonus pot was ringfenced to reward the U.S. workers.

The agreement was greeted with incredulity on this side of the Atlantic given the disastrous consequences of Lehman’s speculation on ‘toxic’ debt.

The failure of the investment bank caused stock markets to plunge and helped force the U.S. Treasury into its largest-ever financial bail-out.

The Prime Minister attacked the bonus system, which has been criticised for incentivising bankers to take huge risks.

'There has been a great deal of irresponsibility,' Mr Brown told Labour's annual conference.

I wonder if they gave any 'bonuses' to the people that lost their jobs at the street level because of their fiscal irresponsibiltiy.