At the Marcum Microcap Investment Conference in Manhattan on Thursday, former Lehman Brothers CEO, Richard “Dick” Fuld, Jr., appeared publicly to speak for the first time since filing for bankruptcy in 2008.
Fuld — the presiding executive at the time of Lehman Brothers infamous 2008 collapse — spoke to numerous factors that could have potentially sparked the Great Recession: “the government, reckless borrowers, aggressive investors, and poor regulation” were among the few.
Among these possible contributors, Fuld failed to mention his former firm.
Fuld stated that he was not there to discuss Lehman, but did briefly defend the company in claiming, “Lehman was not a bankrupt company.” In fact, the former exec stated that Lehman had “$28 billion in assets, and $127 in available capital.”
In responding to inquiries about why the firm collapsed if it truly was not bankrupt, Fuld said, “It’s not just a one single thing, it’s all these things taken together.” He attributed the bank’s infamous collapse to “a perfect storm” from falling “prey to others’ agendas.”
Fuld also admitted to making many mistakes and said that in retrospect, he would certainly have done some things differently, but concluding that he was “proud of the culture he built at Lehman.”