Lehman Report: CME, Bidders For Lehman Book Likely Protected

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), Barclays plc (BCS), DRW Trading and CME Group Inc. (CME) are likely to be protected from lawsuits seeking to recoup losses associated with the auction of Lehman Brothers Holdings' futures book, according to a court-appointed examiner.

Goldman Sachs, Barclays and DRW Trading were revealed Wednesday as buyers of Lehman's derivatives positions held at futures exchange CME Group, after a judge ordered details of the bidding process released.

Naming the firms and the size of their bids--a move CME fought unsuccessfully in court--represented the last pieces of a nine-volume, 2,200-page report by court-appointed examiner Anton Valukas, detailing the downfall of Lehman in September 2008.

The move to reveal the identities could open the way for creditors to pursue lawsuits against the exchange company or the firms that bought Lehman's positions in what Valukas characterized as a fire sale of more than $2 billion in commodity, interest rate and equity index contracts.

Arguments could be made that the transfers were "fraudulent," according to Valukas' report, due to the fact that Lehman took a $1.2 billion loss related to the sale.

However, Valukas' report said that such claims are likely to be unsuccessful, as CME and the buyers of Lehman-owned futures were seen to be protected by CME's role as a self-regulator of its exchanges and safe-harbor provisions of bankruptcy law.

In addition to Barclays, Goldman and DRW Trading, Morgan Stanley (MS), JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Citadel Investment Group also submitted bids for Lehman's futures book at CME.

-By Jacob Bunge, Dow Jones Newswires; (312) 750 4117; jacob.bunge@dowjones.com

(David McLaughlin contributed to this article.)

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