Barclays wins ruling in Lehman case

The US Supreme Court yesterday allowed Barclays to claim about $4bn (€3.6bn) of disputed assets as part of its hurried purchase of much of Lehman Brothers Holdings’ brokerage unit at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.

The top US court declined to hear an appeal filed by Lehman’s creditors, leaving intact an August 2014 ruling by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that went in favour of Barclays. Barclays already had control of $3.5bn of the disputed $4bn.

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 $639bn of assets when it filed for Chapter 11 protection on September 15, 2008, making its bankruptcy by far the biggest in US history.