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Ex-Lehman trader loses bid for $83 mln 'windfall' bonus -judge

Wed, 06th Jul 2016 23:18

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, July 6 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesdaysaid a former star Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc trader was notentitled to an $83 million bonus he claimed he was owedfollowing the investment bank's 2008 collapse, on top of asimilar sum that Barclays Plc already paid him.

U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield in Manhattan also saidthe former trader Jonathan Hoffman did not deserve $7.7 millionthat a federal bankruptcy judge had said he could recoup fromthe estate of Lehman's brokerage unit, Lehman Brothers Inc,based on an unpaid installment from his 2007 bonus.

Hoffman's quest for additional pay is one of the largestlawsuits left in the wind-down of Lehman, whose Sept. 15, 2008bankruptcy remains the biggest in U.S. history and helpedtrigger a global financial crisis.

Schofield said Hoffman, a former managing director, had been"extremely successful" trading interest rate products,generating billions of dollars of profit since joining Lehman in1994.

But she said it "strains credulity" for Hoffman to arguethat Barclays, the British bank that bought much of Lehman'sNorth American banking business, paid him $83 million as asigning bonus or motivational tool, and that the sum onlycoincidentally matched what Lehman owed.

"He negotiated for and received everything he was owed, andnow seeks to collect an $83 million windfall," Schofield wrote."His claim is barred in its entirety."

Lawyers for Hoffman did not immediately respond to requestsfor comment.

A spokesman for James Giddens, a court-appointed trusteeliquidating the Lehman brokerage estate, said the decisionensures that there will be no "double recoveries," an outcomethat is fair to customers and creditors.

Hoffman had sought a payment equal to roughly one-seventh ofthe $540 million of profit he claimed to generate for Lehman inits 2008 fiscal year, prior to the firm's failure.

The judge said that payment obligation, however, had movedto Barclays.

Schofield's denial of the $7.7 million payment reversed partof an Oct. 2015 ruling in which U.S. Bankruptcy Judge ShelleyChapman in Manhattan also rejected an $83 million payout.

The case is In re: Lehman Brothers Inc, U.S. District Court,Southern District of New York, No. 15-08903.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by TomBrown)

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