Lehman execs aware of Barclays discount: court documents

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEHMQ.PK) executives who sold the bank's U.S. brokerage to Barclays Plc (BARC.L) after its bankruptcy last year knew they were selling it at a $5 billion discount, according to a September motion unsealed on Thursday in U.S. bankruptcy court.

Lehman executives such as the Chief Financial Officer at the time, Ian Lowitt, and its then Treasurer Paolo Tonucci knew Barclays was paying $45 billion in cash in exchange for about $50 billion in securities, according to the court documents.

"I was aware that the - that Barclays was going to purchase a substantial block of assets for less than the amount that we had on our books," Lowitt told the court in September, according to the documents.

A number of Lehman executives who worked on the transaction with Barclays had been offered "lucrative" jobs there, raising questions about the "arms-length" nature of the deal, Lehman said in the court documents, citing e-mails.

Earlier this month, Lehman asked Judge James Peck of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan to revisit the September 2008 sale of Lehman's core U.S. brokerage to Barclays Capital, claiming that the British bank reaped an improper $8.2 billion "windfall profit" from excess assets it took over in the deal." Lehman is seeking the return of certain assets.

Lehman's creditors' committee, Lehman and the trustee charged with liquidating the remains of Lehman's brokerage business had fought to have the September motion unsealed.

Lehman had received approval in June to investigate whether Barclays got "too good of a deal" when it bought Lehman's brokerage business in September 2008 days after Lehman filed for the largest U.S. bankruptcy ever.

Barclays has said Lehman is making "an opportunistic claim" and trying to "re-trade the deal" now that the economy has stabilized.

Spokeswomen for Barclays and Lehman could not immediately be reached.

The case is In re: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 08-13555.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba; editing by Carol Bishopric)