50 Lehman workers paid nearly $700 million before the crash

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that dozens of lesser-known traders and others at Lehman were allotted pay ranging from $8.2 million to $51.3 million in 2007, in the year before the financial meltdown. The 50 employees were awarded more than $1.6 billion in cash and stock in the three years preceding Lehman's demise in September 2008.

LOS ANGELES — Calls for reforming Wall Street pay packages reverberated across Washington and the financial district following the disclosure that 50 Lehman Bros. employees were awarded nearly $700 million in the year before the investment bank collapsed.

Lawmakers and other experts said disclosure at major banks and other financial institutions should be beefed up significantly, in part to spotlight potential risks that employees may be taking in their pursuit of super-sized paychecks.

The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that dozens of lesser-known traders and others at Lehman were allotted pay ranging from $8.2 million to $51.3 million in 2007, including one person who earned more than the chief executive and 42 people who were awarded at least $10 million.

The 50 employees were awarded more than $1.6 billion in cash and stock in the three years preceding Lehman's demise in September 2008.

"It never ceases to amaze me," said Phil Angelides, chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. "You clearly have corporate leadership that's out of control, reckless without accountability and, in the course of driving the firm over the cliff, they're taking as much money as they can out of it."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2018090482_lehman28.html

[DCKit]

1. "Lawmakers and other experts..." Too funny. nt

[hfojvt]

2. so an average of $10.7 million each, for three years.

I wonder what they are doing now.

That just boggles my mind. If I could make $10.7 million a year, I would not work more than one year. I cannot fathom the way these people live. I'd like to be able to spend an hour or two interviewing each one of them. Trying to find out what makes them tick.

[hughee99]

3. Not shocking,

Lehman had many profitable divisions, and unfortunately for them, one so grossly unprofitable that it brought down the company. If you want to keep the people that are making money at your company, you have to pay them good bonuses or they'll go elsewhere. The real issue I have is the people getting bonuses while showing big losses or taking huge risks. I had a friend at Bear Sterns a few years ago who got a nice bonus (though nowhere in this neighborhood) who was dealing with hi-tech investments (I think). I asked him what was up with the real estate stuff, and he told me "I don't know much about what goes on in that department, but I know they're fucked".