Former Lehman Brothers bankers are among the list of creditors with huge claims against the failed U.S. investment bank. Some of these demands may be fair enough — there’s no reason why employees shouldn’t chase unpaid wages, for instance. But some look grossly opportunistic — and will rekindle anger over the selfishness of bankers who share responsibility for the messing up of the financial system.

Hopefully these will be firmly resisted. Most egregious is the claim entered by Lehman’s former No.2 officer, Joseph Gregory, who is seeking almost $233 million — the largest of all those made public on the website detailing Lehman’s Chapter 11 administration:
http://chap11.epiqsystems.com/LBH/claim/search.aspx.

Gregory was president of Lehman but left the bank just before it went bust.

The basis for Gregory’s claim — noted briefly in his hand-writing on the official form — is “employee priority, deferred comp”. His argument is that grants of restricted stock he received should be paid out in cash at the share price prevailing at the time of grant, even though the Lehman stock is trading at less than 20 cents a share. Apart from the obvious objection — that Gregory shouldn’t be able to sell shares at above market — there’s also the problem of it being restricted stock. Isn’t the idea that you lose that if you leave the company?

But these are just quibbles. The real point is that top bankers like Gregory were involved in making the decisions which ultimately led to Lehman’s demise. They should not be in line for major pay-outs as part of the bankruptcy — especially in relation to equity they owned in a bank that went bust. That would send out a very odd message about risk-taking at financial institutions.

Were Lehman’s unsecured creditors to be paid back at the rate of 20 cents in the dollar — the level at which such claims have been changing hands — Gregory could end up getting almost $46 million. It’s hard to know whether many other Gregorys may be out there. Other Lehman bigwigs have lodged similar claims under a so-called “Schedule G” category, which means the details are not disclosed.

Former Lehman employees, counterparties and other creditors had to file claims with the U.S. bankruptcy court by Sept. 22. And the general approach seems to have been to aim for as high a figure as you can and see what sticks.

Lawyers say that whacking in as big a claim as possible is normal practice in such cases. The administrator or bankruptcy court — depending on the jurisdiction — will then decide whether or not the claimant has a valid case.

If this decision goes in their favour, they are entitled as unsecured creditors to a share of the pot realised by the administrators through asset sales or other routes.

The Lehman claims show is that the lessons of the excesses of the investment banking bonus culture have not been learned, with senior executives still thinking that Lehman “owes” them something.

Lehman’s administrators must make sure that claims by those who were in charge at Lehman are challenged all the way.