The Gorilla Without Fur

Finally, "the Gorilla of Wall Street", Alan Fuld, Jr., the disgraced ex-CEO of the fourth largest US investment bank Lehman Brothers R.I.P., was exposed in the just issued US Bankruptcy Report as one of the main reasons for the largest corporate bankruptcies in the HISTORY of the USA. Fuld has been described in the report as "grossly negligent" and "breached his fiduciary duty" for knowingly "cooking the books" in leading Lehman to destruction. Lehman filed for Chapter 11 on September 9, 2008 with $639BILLION in assets. Barclays Capital bought Lehman Brothers US Operations for the paltry sum of $1.75B. According to my math, that is about a $637BILLION LOSS. That singular failure almost systematically brought down the entire financial system of this country. If not the world.

For the past 16 months, Fuld has blamed others for the failure of Lehman Brothers. Short sellers. Korea Development Bank. JP Morgan. Bank of America. Hank Paulson. The Government. Ernst and Young. "They failed me and Lehman Brothers." Always him first. In his fantasy world, it was never about him even though his white knuckle grip on the Lehman steering wheel had it headed directly and recklessly into the perfect storm. Well, truth be told. It was mostly your fault, Alan. You were in charge. You were paid ungodly sums of money to lead. You were accountable. Your dreadful leadership caused this calamity. No one else. End of story!

Before Fuld packed up his belongings in chilly NYC and headed for his Western outpost, his last public words in front of a stunned Congress were, "This is a pain that will stay with me the rest of my life." From what my contacts tell me you're dealing OK with your pain in that ghetto called Sun Valley. Skiing in winter and golfing in the summer. If that's pain, I'll take two. But what about the pain you caused on thousands of employees that lost their jobs and pensions overnight and those hundreds of thousands if not millions of investors that lost life-building fortunes and retirements. What about those folks, Alan? I'm sure they don't live next to you in your tony mountain hamlet.

Honestly, I hope your words, Mr Fuld, in front of Congress were not your last words uttered on the public stage. Even though you will mount a rigorous defense based on the failed Ken Lay's Enron tactic "I'm not an accountant", I trust our system government to exact some fair measure of punishment for you and your kind. And that your final public words after a criminal prosecution verdict may go something like this, "I'll have alot of time to think about what I didn't do honestly while I'm in the cell next to Bernie." Lights out Tweedledee and Tweedledum!!!