Lehman Bankruptcy Advisers Paid $641.9 Million in 16 Months

And the politicians/media think trader and bankers overpay is the problem.

Ya right.

Lehman Bankruptcy Advisers Paid $641.9 Million in 16 Months
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By Linda Sandler


Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the investment bank liquidating in bankruptcy, paid its lawyers and other advisers $641.9 million in 16 months since September 2008, according to a regulatory filing.

The restructuring firm Alvarez & Marsal LLC, which provided Lehman with its current chief executive officer, Bryan Marsal, led the payments with $233 million in fees for “interim management” through January, according to the filing yesterday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP of New York collected $149.5 million for acting as the investment bank’s lead bankruptcy law firm. Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP got $42.4 million for advising Lehman’s creditors’ committee.

Lehman and its affiliates reported cash holdings of $17.6 billion on Jan. 31, an increase from $17.2 billion a month earlier.

Lehman, once the world’s fourth-biggest investment bank, is liquidating in bankruptcy to pay creditors. Its payments to advisers haven’t faced major challenges such as those in the case of bankrupt automaker Chrysler LLC, which is using U.S. Treasury loans to wind itself down.

Lehman filed the biggest U.S. bankruptcy in September 2008 with assets of $639 billion. Creditors include UBS AG, the New York Giants and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority as well as individuals who hold Lehman bonds.

The case is In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., 08-13555, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

 

This is what Jim Rogers said 2 years ago.

If you deal in bankruptcies you have a beautifull future ahead of you.

 

It only sounds like alot from the side of the fence you are sitting on. If you told someone in a poor country in africa that people in america pay $1500 or 2k to claim bankruptcy and in that country, the average person makes $250 per year, they wont understand how you didnt have enough money. 641 million sounds like a lot, but you are dealing with a company with assets of 639 billion. So basically they paid 1/10th of 1% of their assets for bankruptcy. Imagine a normal guy who has 100k of debt and only has to pay 1/10th of 1% or $100 for bankruptcy. Seems like LEH got a good deal.

I also would not doubt that there is more paperwork to do in that bankruptcy than a single human being could go through in his lifetime.

For instance....I dont know how many creditors LEH had, but I imagine it has to be alot, like 100,000 maybe. I mean, the postage alone in that bankruptcy must have run over 1 million dollars.