Lawyers for the various directors and officers, including former CEO Richard Fuld, filed papers Wednesday in Lehman’s Manhattan federal bankruptcy proceedings seeking the release of $90 million in insurance funds to settle securities fraud claims pending since June 2008. Also on Wednesday, the same defendants petitioned for the release of another $8.25 million to settle a separate suit brought by the state of New Jersey asserting similar claims.
In a 110-page ruling issued July 27, Judge Kaplan allowed much of the class action suit to move forward, ruling that co-lead plaintiffs counsel at Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman and Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check had sufficiently alleged that Lehman officers and directors had misled investors. As we’ve reported, the plaintiffs lawyers borrowed much of the detail in their amended complaint from Jenner & Block chairman Anton Valukas’ exhaustive examiner’s report in the Lehman bankruptcy and its revelations about the investment bank’s infamous “Repo 105″ accounting maneuver.
