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Gong Szeto|Essays

September 16, 2008

Lehman’s Bankruptcy Statement

I’m just a designer, but it doesn’t take a genius to read a bankruptcy statement. Take a look at the Lehman Brothers statement dated Sunday, September 14, 2008. Read the whole thing down to Exhibit A and the list of creditors — this is an historical document.

You think this is over? Citibank is owed $138 billion in bond debt, followed by the Bank of New York with $17 billion in bond debt. Lehman only owed the French (BNP Paribas) $250 million in loans, and Lloyd’s Bank $75 million for a line of credit. But the poor Japanese are sitting on $1.67 billion in debt. The creditors are all major banks across the globe. These are amounts Lehman’s banking investors will most likely have to write down in the coming weeks, which will mess with an already messy market.

This ain’t over by a long shot. One simple bankruptcy statement and you are looking at Lehman Brothers’s wake — and the numbers are staggering.

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By Gong Szeto

Gong Szeto is the director of design at PEAK6 Investments, LP. He designs real-time high-performance securities trading systems for the equity options market and was named one of I.D. Magazine’s Top 40 Designers in 1996. He lives in Santa Fe, NM.

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