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Internal Emails From Lehman Execs: "The Bros Always Wins!!"
By
Christopher Robbins
Published May 7, 2012
Modified May 7, 2012
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published May 7, 2012
Modified May 7, 2012
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Remember when besuited money-Gollum and CEO of Lehman Brothers Dick Fuld denied knowing that his bank was headed for a ditch in 2008? Well, internal emails and documents released by the law firm who performed the "post-mortem" on Lehman reveal that the bank's executives were repeatedly warned about the risks the company was taken, and willfully ignored them.
William Cohan at Bloomberg found one exchange between Fuld and David Goldfarb, the bank's CFO, concerning a possible injection of capital by Chinese investment bank Citic Group, capital the bank desperately needed. But that would violate rule #1 of Old Rich White Guy Code: never show weakness, especially in front of the Chinese.
"This will signal a major sign (which obviously isn’t true and will feed into rimors, etc) and put us in a category of those who needed an infusion to help them out of this market mess," Goldfarb writes. "How do you spell stupidity in Chinese!!!” Ha-ha isn't it "G-O-L-D-F-A-R-B?"
Fuld responds, “I agree we need some help—but the Bros always wins!!” Actually, its the "Fulds" that always win: Dick Fuld raked in around $500 million in compensation between 2000 and 2008 while driving the bank (and a huge portion of the global economy) into the ground.
For more enthralling, infuriating details about the financial crisis and why we should be keying Eric Holder's car every day until he starts prosecuting these people, check out Frontline PBS' superb, 4-hour-long documentary, Money, Power, and Wall Street.
Tagged
assholes
financial crisis
lehman brothers
mortgage crisis
rich people
wall street
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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