Financial Regulatory Forum

By Erik Krusch (Westlaw Business)

Legal opinions underpin the Lehman-related lawsuit against Ernst &Young (E&Y) by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and both lawyers and auditors can’t help but take note. The AG alleges that Lehman’s then-auditor E&Y provided substantial assistance to Lehman in its perpetrating a massive financial fraud. In particular, Cuomo has charged the accounting giant with three counts of securities fraud under the Martin Act and a charge of persistent fraud and illegality brought under the Executive Law § 63(12) of New York.

The AG’s case centers on Lehman’s use of the now notorious Repo 105 to lower its leverage levels. Lehman accounted for Repo 105, which amounts to selling securities for 105% of their value to counterparties with the agreement to repurchase the securities later, as sales rather than loans. It is standard practice to account for securities repos as loans. Repo 105 allowed Lehman to shift assets (and more to the point, “net leverage”) from the curious eyes of the ratings agencies, investing public and regulators. Ernst & Young signed off on this accounting from 2001 until Lehman’s demise in 2008. For additional information on Repo 105 please see the previous Westlaw Business Currents article The Tale of the Grim Repo: Lehman’s Link to True Sales.

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By Emmanuel Olaoye, Complinet

Civil fraud charges against Ernst & Young LLP have raised the question of whether accounting standards have become so specific that institutions view them as obstacles to maneuver around rather than guidelines for accurate reporting. Legal and accounting experts said that the suit filed by Andrew Cuomo, New York attorney general, was likely to mean the end for transactions such as the “Repo 105″ device at the center of the controversy, particularly if it led to a settlement. It could break new ground in the liability of accounting firms, they added.

The lawsuit has accused E&Y with improperly allowing Lehman Brothers to use a complex accounting transaction known as “Repo 105″ to reduce the apparent debt level of the failed investment bank, giving investors the impression that it had a lower level of debt than it actually did. The lawsuit has claimed that E&Y knew Lehman was treating the transfer of billions of dollars of securities in “Repo 105″ transactions as asset sales rather than loans. “Repo 105″ is the name of the accounting transactions that Lehman used to classify its short-term borrowings as sales. Lehman collapsed in September 2008, at the height of the global financial crisis.

“If there is a settlement this type of transaction would not be used again. The ‘Repo 105′ is radioactive. I don’t think accounting firms will be allowing their clients to use them again,” said Howard Schilit, founder and chief executive of the Financial Shenanigans Detection Group LLC.