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Lehman May 5
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Supreme Court Declines Lehman Appeal Over $4 Billion Award to Barclays
May 4, 2015 | The Wall Street Journal
By Joseph Checkler
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by Lehman Brothers Inc. in its long-running fight over assets that went to Barclays PLC when the British bank bought Lehman’s brokerage in 2008. Trustee James W. Giddens, who is winding down Lehman’s brokerage, had appealed lower courts’ decisions to award $4 billion in... -
Supreme Court Hands Win to Barclays Over $4 Billion in Lehman Assets
May 4, 2015 | Reuters
By Lawrence Hurley
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed Barclays Plc to claim about $4 billion of disputed assets as part of its hurried purchase of much of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's[LEHRG.UL] brokerage unit at the height of the 2008 financial crisis. The U.S. top court declined to hear an appeal filed by Lehman's creditors, leaving intact an August... -
Barclays Wins $4 Billion Lehman Clash as Court Spurns Appeal
May 4, 2015 | Bloomberg
By Greg Stohr
Barclays Plc is entitled to $4 billion in assets stemming from the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapse, as the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the bankruptcy trustee for the firm’s brokerage business. The justices left intact a federal appeals court ruling that said Barclays acquired the assets as part of a hastily drafted... -
Justices Won't Hear Lehman Trustee's $4B Fight With Barclays
May 4, 2015 | Law360
By Cara Salvatore
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to review the Second Circuit's ruling that Barclays Capital Inc. is entitled to $4 billion in trading collateral from the collapsed Lehman Brothers Inc. The decision came in a list of denied petitions for certiorari and didn't include any elaboration on the court's reasoning, which is customary in denials of certiorari. -
Barclays Wins Dispute Over $4bn in Lehman Assets
May 4, 2015 | Financial Times
Barclays has the right to roughly $4bn of disputed assets as part of its purchase of Lehman Brothers after the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from a challenger on Monday. The top US court denied an appeal on Monday from the trustee managing the liquidation of Lehman Brothers, which failed in 2008 at the height of the financial crisis... -
High Court Rejects Lehman Petition in Barclays Brawl
May 4, 2015 | The AM Law - Litigation Daily
By Scott Flaherty
Cementing a victory for Barclays plc and its lawyers at Boies, Schiller & Flexner, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for Barclays to keep some $4 billion in a long-running asset dispute stemming from the bank's frenzied, 2008 buyout of Lehman Brothers' brokerage business... -
Barclays’ Lehman Brothers Deal To Claim Disputed Assets Will Go Ahead
May 5, 2015 | City A.M. (UK)
By Caitlin Morrison
The US Supreme Court has cemented a 2014 ruling which allowed Barclays to claim about $4bn (£2.65bn) of disputed assets in its purchase of much of Lehman Brothers’ brokerage unit. Barclays, which already controlled $3.5bn of the disputed $4bn, was granted leave to take over the assets by the US Court of Appeal last year. -
Us Supreme Court Backs Barclays' Claim Over $4bn Of Lehman’s Disputed Assets
May 5, 2015 | Banking Business Review
As per the US Supreme Court ruling, Barclays will be able to claim about $4bn worth of disputed assets purchased from Lehman Brothers Holdings' brokerage unit during the financial crisis in 2008. The court has ruled in favor of Barclays and refused to hear an appeal by Lehman's creditors. This ruling left intact a federal appeals court ruling... -
Barclays Win £2.64 Billion In Lehman Assets Claim
May 5, 2015 | Directors Talk Interviews
By Giles Arbor
Barclays Plc LON:BARC have been allowed to claim £2.64 billion of disputed assets from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc brokerage unit. The claim stems back to the rushed 2008 buyout of the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc which took place at the height of the financial crisis. The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday declined to hear an appeal which had... -
Court Enlists U.S. Views on Colorado Marijuana Case
May 4, 2015 | SCOTUS Blog
By Lyle Denniston
...In other action on Monday, the Court refused to interfere with the efforts of the investment arm of the British financial giant, Barclays Bank, to collect some $4 billion in cash for its takeover of the bankrupt U.S. investment banking firm, Lehman Brothers. The Justices were urged to block that cash recovery by James W. Giddens...
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Barclays Capital Inc.
Full Text of Stories Below
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Supreme Court Declines Lehman Appeal Over $4 Billion Award to Barclays
May 4, 2015 | The Wall Street Journal
By Joseph Checkler
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by Lehman Brothers Inc. in its long-running fight over assets that went to Barclays PLC when the British bank bought Lehman’s brokerage in 2008.
Trustee James W. Giddens, who is winding down Lehman’s brokerage, had appealed lower courts’ decisions to award $4 billion in disputed assets to Barclays.
In petitioning the Supreme Court, Mr. Giddens had argued that allowing Barclays to keep the $4 billion could broadly inflict long-term damage to the section of the bankruptcy code that allows a trustee to sell a debtor’s assets outside of the ordinary course of business.
“We are disappointed but remain focused on continued progress in winding down and closing out the LBI estate,” said Kent Jarrell, a spokesman for Mr. Giddens. “The trustee appropriately reserved for the Barclays litigation, so the decision does not impact distributions already completed or assets on hand for potential additional distributions to unsecured general creditors.”
Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP’s Jonathan Schiller, who represented Barclays in the dispute, said, “We are happy for Barclays to have successfully concluded this long litigation after its bold and brilliant purchase of Lehman in the crisis that helped stabilize markets and get 12,000 people back to work.”
The legal fight over the sale began in 2009, when the Lehman brokerage and its parent company both sued Barclays, saying the British bank negotiated a secret discount when it bought Lehman’s brokerage.
The fight came down to a “clarification letter” agreed upon by the two sides in the hectic days of September 2008, but never reviewed by James Peck, who was Lehman’s bankruptcy judge. The judge ultimately decided that while he didn’t approve the terms of the letter explicitly, all parties involved treated it as if he had. The letter spelled out the terms of which assets would go to Barclays and which would stay with Lehman.
While Judge Peck had said in court that “no cash” could be transferred from Lehman to Barclays, some assets that the trustee later construed as cash did end up being transferred, per the letter. After the trial, the judge ultimately concluded that Barclays didn’t receive an improper “windfall” from the sale, but that Lehman’s brokerage was entitled to the approximately $4 billion in money described as margin assets.
Later, however, a three-judge court of appeals panel said “ambiguities and loose ends were inevitable” in such a speedy sale and ruled that Barclays was entitled to these disputed assets...
For full story:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-declines-lehman-appeal-over-4-billion-award-to-barclays-1430747755
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Supreme Court Hands Win to Barclays Over $4 Billion in Lehman Assets
May 4, 2015 | Reuters
By Lawrence Hurley
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed Barclays Plc to claim about $4 billion of disputed assets as part of its hurried purchase of much of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's[LEHRG.UL] brokerage unit at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.
The U.S. top court declined to hear an appeal filed by Lehman's creditors, leaving intact an August 2014 ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that went in favor of Barclays.
Barclays already had control of $3.5 billion of the disputed $4 billion.
Trustee James Giddens has been seeking to recoup money for the brokerage's creditors, including Lehman affiliates and hedge funds. Lehman had been Wall Street's fourth-largest investment bank. It had $639 billion of assets when it filed for Chapter 11 protection on Sept. 15, 2008, making its bankruptcy by far the biggest in U.S. history.
Barclays won court approval to buy much of Lehman's brokerage business at a Sept. 19, 2008, hearing overseen by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck in Manhattan.
A dispute remained, however, over how to dispose of various "cash" assets of the brokerage. These included the $4 billion of margin assets held by third parties to support a Lehman exchange-traded derivatives business.
Also in dispute was $1.9 billion of "clearance box" assets used to process securities trades, although that was not part of the Supreme Court appeal.
In February 2011, Peck said Barclays was entitled to the clearance box assets but not the margin assets. But in July 2012, U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan partially reversed him, and said Barclays deserved both. The appeals court upheld that decision...
For full story:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/05/04/us-usa-court-barclays-idUKKBN0NP17O20150504
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Barclays Wins $4 Billion Lehman Clash as Court Spurns Appeal
May 4, 2015 | Bloomberg
By Greg Stohr
Barclays Plc is entitled to $4 billion in assets stemming from the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapse, as the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the bankruptcy trustee for the firm’s brokerage business.
The justices left intact a federal appeals court ruling that said Barclays acquired the assets as part of a hastily drafted purchase agreement in September 2008. Barclays bought most of Lehman’s North American brokerage assets in that deal.
The trustee, James Giddens, sought to recoup the money, most of which is already in Barclays’ possession.
“We are disappointed but remain focused on continued progress in winding down and closing out the LBI estate,” Kent Jarrell, a spokesman for Giddens, said in an e-mailed statement. “The trustee appropriately reserved for the Barclays litigation, so the decision does not impact distributions already completed or assets on hand for potential additional distributions to unsecured general creditors.”
In his appeal, Giddens said lawyers for both sides had told a bankruptcy judge that London-based Barclays wouldn’t receive any cash in the deal. He also said the appeals court gave too much weight to a clarification letter the two sides drafted...
For full story:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-04/barclays-wins-4-billion-lehman-clash-as-court-rejects-appeal
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Justices Won't Hear Lehman Trustee's $4B Fight With Barclays
May 4, 2015 | Law360
By Cara Salvatore
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to review the Second Circuit's ruling that Barclays Capital Inc. is entitled to $4 billion in trading collateral from the collapsed Lehman Brothers Inc.
The decision came in a list of denied petitions for certiorari and didn't include any elaboration on the court's reasoning, which is customary in denials of certiorari.
The Supreme Court review had been requested by LBI's Securities Investor Protection Act trustee, James Giddens, who said lower courts had improperly interpreted the complicated contracts surrounding the hasty sale of Lehman customer accounts and its North American investment banking business to Barclays in the fall of 2008, directly after Lehman's plunge into bankruptcy. The transaction was what's known as a 363 asset sale. But Barclays later said it was entitled to $4 billion in cash — prompting a massive fight and a 34-day trial, according to Giddens' petition for certiorari.
The Second Circuit ruling squarely contradicted a bankruptcy court decision that awarded the assets to the Lehman estate, Giddens said.
In his December petition for certiorari, Giddens had argued that the lower court’s decision violated the Bankruptcy Code and the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution. Giddens said in a statement at the time that he filed the petition out of fiduciary duty to Lehman Brothers’ customers and creditors.
A spokesman for Giddens, Kent Jarrell, said Monday that the decision would not affect its accounting going forward.
“We are disappointed but remain focused on continued progress in winding down and closing out the LBI estate,” Jarrell said in a statement. “The trustee appropriately reserved for the Barclays litigation, so the decision does not impact distributions already completed or assets on hand for potential additional distributions to unsecured general creditors.”
General unsecured creditors have received roughly 27 cents on the dollar so far, according to the trustee's office.
A spokesman for Barclays was not immediately available for comment.
The dispute arose after Barclays purchased Lehman's brokerage business following a bankruptcy court sale hearing in September 2008, according to court documents. During that hearing, the parties made repeated and unambiguous representations that "no cash" was to be included in the sale, Giddens told the high court in his petition. But Barclays later claimed that a post-transaction "clarification letter” entitled it to $4 billion in margin cash assets that secured exchange-traded derivatives and another $1.9 billion held in so-called clearance box accounts, he said.
Giddens told the justices in the December filing that U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest and the Second Circuit panel violated the bankruptcy code and due process when they overturned U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James M. Peck’s decision to deny Barclays’ request for the assets...For full story:
http://www.law360.com/articles/651124/justices-won-t-hear-lehman-trustee-s-4b-fight-with-barclays
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Barclays Wins Dispute Over $4bn in Lehman Assets
May 4, 2015 | Financial Times
Barclays has the right to roughly $4bn of disputed assets as part of its purchase of Lehman Brothers after the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from a challenger on Monday.
The top US court denied an appeal on Monday from the trustee managing the liquidation of Lehman Brothers, which failed in 2008 at the height of the financial crisis, leaving in tact a ruling in 2014 from a lower court.
The dispute centres around approximately $4bn in margin assets that Barclays acquired during its purchase of the US investment bank, points that were not agreed on when the sale was hastily reached in 2008.
James Giddens, the trustee, argued the margin accounts counted as cash, a point agreed in 2011 by bankruptcy judge Jame Peck, who presided over the sale.
However that decision, which also encompassed other assets, was partially reversed by a district judge and then upheld on appeal, giving Barclays control. Barclays already has a majority of the assets in its control...
For full story:
http://www.ft.com/intl/fastft/317691/barclays-wins-dispute-over-4bn-lehman-assets
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High Court Rejects Lehman Petition in Barclays Brawl
May 4, 2015 | The AM Law - Litigation Daily
By Scott Flaherty
Cementing a victory for Barclays plc and its lawyers at Boies, Schiller & Flexner, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for Barclays to keep some $4 billion in a long-running asset dispute stemming from the bank's frenzied, 2008 buyout of Lehman Brothers' brokerage business...
Subscription needed for full story:
http://www.litigationdaily.com/id=1202725476094/High-Court-Rejects-Lehman-Petition-in-Barclays-Brawl?slreturn=20150405034916
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Barclays’ Lehman Brothers Deal To Claim Disputed Assets Will Go Ahead
May 5, 2015 | City A.M. (UK)
By Caitlin Morrison
The US Supreme Court has cemented a 2014 ruling which allowed Barclays to claim about $4bn (£2.65bn) of disputed assets in its purchase of much of Lehman Brothers’ brokerage unit.
Barclays, which already controlled $3.5bn of the disputed $4bn, was granted leave to take over the assets by the US Court of Appeal last year.
Lehman’s creditors then appealed to the Supreme Court – however the court yesterday declined to hear the appeal.
Barclays originally won approval to buy the brokerage business in September 2008, just days after Lehman Brothers, at one point Wall Street’s fourth-largest investment bank, filed for Chapter 11 protection in the biggest bankruptcy the US has ever seen.
Trustee James Giddens has been seeking to recoup money for the brokerage’s creditors, including Lehman affiliates and hedge funds.
Kent Jarrell, a spokesman for Giddens, said yesterday that the trustee was disappointed by the court’s decision, but would “remain focused on continued progress in winding-down and closing out” the Lehman Brothers estate.
Jarrell added: “The trustee appropriately reserved for the Barclays litigation, so the decision does not impact distributions already completed or assets on hand for potential additional distributions to unsecured general creditors.”
Since Barclays first began the process of buying much of the business, there has been a dispute over how to dispose of the various “cash” assets of the brokerage, including the $4bn of margin assets held by third parties to support a Lehman exchange-traded derivatives business...
For full story:
http://www.cityam.com/215078/barclays-lehman-deal-will-go-ahead
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Us Supreme Court Backs Barclays' Claim Over $4bn Of Lehman’s Disputed Assets
May 5, 2015 | Banking Business Review
As per the US Supreme Court ruling, Barclays will be able to claim about $4bn worth of disputed assets purchased from Lehman Brothers Holdings' brokerage unit during the financial crisis in 2008.
The court has ruled in favor of Barclays and refused to hear an appeal by Lehman's creditors.
This ruling left intact a federal appeals court ruling that was also in favor of Barclays. It recognized that Barclays acquired most of Lehman's North American brokerage assets as part of a hurriedly drafted purchase agreement in September 2008.
The legal battle between the two sides began in 2009 when the Lehman brokerage and its parent company both sued Barclays claiming that the bank negotiated a secret discount when it bought Lehman's brokerage.
Around $3.5bn of the disputed amount was already under Barclays' control.
Trustee James Giddens had been trying to recover the amount and had argued in court that allowing Barclays to keep the $4bn could result in long-term damage to the section of the bankruptcy code that mandates a trustee to sell debtor's assets outside the ordinary course of business, reported The Wall Street Journal...
For full story:
http://www.banking-business-review.com/news/us-supreme-court-backs-barclays-claim-over-4bn-of-lehmans-disputed-assets-050515-4568448
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Barclays Win £2.64 Billion In Lehman Assets Claim
May 5, 2015 | Directors Talk Interviews
By Giles Arbor
Barclays Plc LON:BARC have been allowed to claim £2.64 billion of disputed assets from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc brokerage unit. The claim stems back to the rushed 2008 buyout of the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc which took place at the height of the financial crisis.
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday declined to hear an appeal which had been filed by the Lehmans creditors which in turn left a August 2014 ruling in place, that ruling had been held by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and favoured Barclays.
Barclays Plchad originally won the approval to buy the brokerage business on September 19th 2008 just after the Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 protection, creating the biggest bankruptcy the U.S. had ever seen. At that time a dispute arose on how to dispose of certain ‘cash’ assets including the £2.64 billion margin assets held to support a Lehman exchange-traded derivatives business held by 3rd parties.
Kent Jarrell, a spokesman for Giddens said “We are disappointed but remain focused on continued progress in winding-down and closing out the Lehman Brothers estate,” and continued...
For full story:
http://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/barclays-win-2-4-billion-in-lehman-assets-claim/412662351
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Court Enlists U.S. Views on Colorado Marijuana Case
May 4, 2015 | SCOTUS Blog
By Lyle Denniston
The Supreme Court, taking quick action on two states’ constitutional challenge to Colorado’s new marijuana sales policy, asked the federal government on Monday for its reaction to that case (144 Original, Nebraska and Oklahoma v. Colorado).
...In other action on Monday, the Court refused to interfere with the efforts of the investment arm of the British financial giant, Barclays Bank, to collect some $4 billion in cash for its takeover of the bankrupt U.S. investment banking firm, Lehman Brothers.
The Justices were urged to block that cash recovery by James W. Giddens, who is serving as trustee under the Securities Investor Protection Act or liquidation of Lehman Brothers. Giddens’s petition argued that, after a federal bankruptcy judge had approved the sale of Lehman’s investment business to Barclays Capital, Inc., with no cash to change hands in the deal, a lawyer for Barclays slyly altered the terms of the deal to allow it to receive about $4 billion in cash or cash equivalents, which Lehman had set aside in reserves to cover its trading decision in so-called derivatives.
While the bankruptcy judge ruled that Barclays was not entitled to any cash, including the $4 billion it sought, that result was overturned, first by a federal district court and then by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The Second Circuit said the dispute was only about honoring the terms of a business contract, governed by New York state contract law, not by the bankruptcy code.
Trustee Giddens’s petition to the Court was supported by the Securities Investor Protection Corp., a federally chartered corporation that seeks to protect investors when a brokerage firm or investment banker becomes insolvent — as Lehman Brothers did, in the largest bankruptcy case ever filed.
Lehman Brothers was a major player in the market for pools of investment devices backed up by home mortgages. The collapse of the market for those devices, due to inadequate credit risk by many home buyers, was a leading initial cause of the global financial markets collapse in 2008.
The Supreme Court made no comment as it turned down the trustee’s challenge to Barclays’ cash claim.
For full story:
http://www.scotusblog.com/2015/05/court-enlists-u-s-views-on-colorado-marijuana-case/
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Barclays Capital Inc.
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