Dick Fuld feels horrible about Lehman collapse
Dick Fuld, the Chief Executive of the beleaguered and now bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers, finally addressed staff after the worlds largest bankruptcy in history. He told staff he felt horrible for their personal and financial loss. Below is Bloomberg’s summary of the event.
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld told the employees of the firm that he feels “horrible” for what they have gone through during the events ending with bankruptcy this week.
“The past several months have been extraordinarily challenging, culminating in our bankruptcy filing,” Fuld wrote in a memo distributed internally yesterday. “This has been very painful on all of you, both personally and financially. For this, I feel horrible.”
Lehman lost 96 percent of its value between February 2007 and last week on concern about the firm’s mortgage assets and ability to raise fresh capital. During a weekend marathon, Fuld tried to sell the 158-year-old investment bank. Lehman filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 15 when the potential buyers balked at an acquisition without the U.S. government’s financial backing. The shares declined further this week, making it a penny stock.
Fuld sold shares that were worth $247 million a year and a half ago for less than $500,000 this week after he failed to find a buyer for his firm.
The 62-year-old CEO sold 2.88 million Lehman shares in the last two days at a price of 16 cents to 30 cents, according to a regulatory filing today. He still holds 503,744 shares, the filing said.
Spokesman Mark Lane declined to comment on Fuld’s share sale and the memo.
Fuld received almost half a billion dollars in cash from sales of Lehman stock he was awarded during his 14-year tenure as Lehman’s chairman and CEO, according to Fortune magazine.
Source
Fuld Tells Lehman Employees He Feels `Horrible’ for Their Pain – Bloomberg
If he doesn’t shoot himself, I’ll assume that it’s all self-indulgent posing.
I was definitely playing it straight in my post because my true feeling about this is that it is almost criminal that he has earned so much for bankrupting people. And he didn’t have the decency to address staff sooner?
Pathetic.