Did Dick Fuld, the former chief executive of Lehman Brothers, know about the "accounting gimmick" that enabled the firm to shift billions of dollars secretly off its balance sheet quarter after quarter?
Anton Valukas, the court-appointed examiner, concluded that there was sufficient evidence to support a claim that Mr Fuld and other executives breached their fiduciary duties by "allowing and certifying the filing of financial statements that omitted or misrepresented material information".
He also said there was "credible evidence" to support a claim that Mr Fuld's failure to decide to disclose the transactions was "grossly negligent or demonstrated a conscious disregard of his duties".
Mr Fuld's lawyer said the Lehman chief had no knowledge of "Repo 105", a device that allowed Lehman to move assets off balance sheet to flatter its results at the end of the quarter. The lawyer added: "Nor did Lehman's senior finance officers, legal counsel or Ernst & Young raise any concerns about the use of Repo 105 with Mr Fuld."
Mr Valukas's report, however, focuses on two instances during which Repo 105 was discussed by Lehman's top executives.
First, on March 27 2008, Bart McDade, then Lehman's "balance sheet" tsar, e-mailed materials to Mr Fuld and others for a meeting the following day. The attachments included an agenda with topics such as "Repo 105/108" [Repo 108 was a similar device] and a presentation detailing that Lehman had used Repo 105 to move $49bn (