MAIL Online: The disgraced head of the giant investment bank whose collapse set off a panic which led to the US economic rescue package took home more than £172 million since 2000, he told the U.S. Congress.
Richard S Fuld Jr, chief executive officer of Lehman Brothers, ignored a warning that the bank's 'liquidity can disappear quite fast' and dismissed suggestions that staff may not get their bonuses.
Days from becoming the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, Lehman Brothers steered millions to departing executives even while pleading for a federal rescue, Congress heard.
The American government let Lehman go under on September 15, only to bail out insurance giant AIG the next day, in a cascading series of financial shocks and failures that put Washington on track for the multibillion-dollar rescue starting the end of that week.
President George Bush and U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson set about convincing US political leaders that the rescue package, which commits up to £403billion of taxpayers' money, was necessary.
The revelations about the payments to the bank's executives came in the first hearing into what caused the U.S. financial markets to collapse last month, which opened with finger-pointing and glimpses into internal company documents from Lehman's chaotic final hours.
Asked if it was true he took home some £275 million in compensation since 2000, Mr Fuld took off his glasses, held them, and looked uncomfortable. He said his compensation was not quite that much.
'We had a compensation committee that spent a tremendous amount of time making sure that the interests of the executives and the employees were aligned with shareholders,' he said.
Mr Fuld added that he took home more than £172million in those years - some £34.4million in cash compensation. Disgraced Chief of Failed Bank Lehman Brothers Pocketed £172million Before Collapse >>> By David Gardner | October 8, 2008
*May the bastard choke on each and every mouthful of Beluga caviar and each truffle he eats! And may he drown in Champagne!
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