Lehman - Barclays got £8.5 bln windfall

In documents filed in U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan, Lehman claimed new evidence showed that, while Barclays said it had a "day one" accounting gain of $4.2 billion on the Lehman acquisition, in reality it received a $13 billion windfall "immediately upon acquisition."

Lehman filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, the largest U.S. bankruptcy filing in history. Its flagship U.S. brokerage business was sold to Barclays for about $1.85 billion less than a week later in a hurriedly arranged deal.

Barclays spokesman Michael O'Looney disputed Lehman's claims saying they had "no basis."

Lehman, which has been waging this battle against Barclays for months, said the deal presented to the court was not the one that was actually executed. Lehman employees who had been offered new jobs at Barclays had arranged for Barclays to get a $5 billion discount on Lehman's $70 billion book of securities, Lehman claimed.

"The 'negotiated' sale price for the assets had nothing to do with 'book value' and contained an embedded $5 billion gain for Barclays that was not disclosed," Lehman's attorneys at Jones Day wrote.

Lehman also claimed Barclays knew its purchase agreement required $2 billion to be spent on bonuses to former Lehman employees, but in reality Barclays has only paid $1.55 billion.

"More than a year after the terms were agreed upon and contrary to well established federal law, the creditors seek to change the terms of the sale," Barclays' spokesman said.

"Renegotiating the transaction would undermine the ability of the federal government and private parties in the future to sell distressed bank assets in order to protect as much as possible depositors, shareholders, creditors, and the government."

Lehman is asking Judge James Peck to make changes to the September 2008 sale order that authorized the deal and force Barclays to return assets to the Lehman bankruptcy estate.