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katastrofa
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"Inside Lehman Brothers: The Whistleblowers​" on BBC

May 2nd, 2020, 2:02 pm

Good document and Lehman Brothers on BBC:
Storyville—Inside Lehman Brothers: The Whistleblowers
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009tpx
"In the autumn of 2007, Matthew Lee, a worried accounting executive at Lehman Brothers, began to notice serious financial irregularities in the company's practices. When he refused to approve tens of billions of dollars’ worth of suspicious transactions, he was fired. 
Six months later, Lehman Brothers sank with 631 billion dollars of debt. Lee, who has since emerged as a crucial figure in Lehman's downfall, and other whistleblowers recount their personal stories of fraud and deception that went right to the top of the bank. Ultimately, they paid the price for trying to expose the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. "
 
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bearish
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Re: "Inside Lehman Brothers: The Whistleblowers​" on BBC

May 2nd, 2020, 6:30 pm

Evidently that link only works from within the UK. Perhaps I could borrow Paul’s unused BBC capacity? But otherwise it sounds like the old repo 105 story. Given that the transactions themselves as well as their accounting treatment were explicitly deemed lawful by both E&Y and Linklaters, they were not that egregious. The moral of the story is that if you do something inappropriate (yet probably lawful) it is best not to trigger the collapse of the world financial system as a result. Then again, the people I know who were involved pretty much all landed on their feet, so maybe there is less of a morality tale here than meets the eye.
 
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katastrofa
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Re: "Inside Lehman Brothers: The Whistleblowers​" on BBC

May 2nd, 2020, 8:14 pm

It's available from some other providers, which may give you the access: https://www.ontvtonight.com/uk/guide/wa ... ville.html

Actually, there isn't much about repo 105 or hiding the top executives compensations from investors (perhaps something new is that SEC ignored the whistleblower, and they continued to bury the investigation - they were staffed with people closely involved with LB).
Most of the story is about the mortgage broker BNC, which they purchased to increase the lending, the fraud they commited to achieve this purpose, and the people who reported it. As a retaliation they were bullied, threatened and blacklisted in the job market. BTW, they won against Lehman Brothers $5 million settlement last year, after a 14-year-long legal battle!
The picture I got is that Lehman Brothers operated like a classic mafia. Only in America one can get away with something like that. Where I come from, there wouldn't be even DNA left of those guys.
 
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Paul
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Re: "Inside Lehman Brothers: The Whistleblowers​" on BBC

May 2nd, 2020, 8:17 pm

Evidently that link only works from within the UK. Perhaps I could borrow Paul’s unused BBC capacity? 
You are welcome. I have several unused TV licences. I'm one of those idiots that obeys the law.
 
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katastrofa
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Re: "Inside Lehman Brothers: The Whistleblowers​" on BBC

May 2nd, 2020, 8:50 pm

I'm afraid one can use iPlayer only from the UK (they won't allow proxy). The movie is available from several pirate platforms (malware warning!).
 
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Cuchulainn
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Re: "Inside Lehman Brothers: The Whistleblowers​" on BBC

May 3rd, 2020, 2:47 pm

By 2005-2006 it became very clear (to me) that  a property storm was brewing, at least in the Irish market based on what I saw each year since 1993.
You know, you are sitting in a taxi from Dublin airport and the driver has told you he has 'bought' an apartment on the Black Sea then you know for whom the bell tolls.

And of course sub-prime loans in USA..

https://forum.wilmott.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=42138&hilit=housing&start=60

Wealth, virtual wealth and debt..