I recently read an article about the exchange of emails between executives at Lehman Brothers regarding the Repo 105 practice the company was engaged in. Below are some of the comments of the executives-
Martin Kelly, Lehman’s global financial controller, stated that the transactions had “no substance”—their “only purpose or motive . . . was reduction in the balance sheet.”
Other Lehman executives described Repo 105 transactions as an “accounting gimmick” and a “lazy way of managing the balance sheet as opposed to legitimately meeting balance sheet targets at quarter-end.” Bart McDade, Lehman’s president and chief operating officer in 2008 (the year the company filed for bankruptcy), in an email called Repo 105 transactions “another drug we are on.”
This drug definitely was fatal for the organization which filed for bankruptcy in 2008!
