The former Lehman Brothers boss Dick Fuld has denied all recollection of an accounting trick allegedly used to boost the Wall Street bank's balance sheet by $50bn (£30bn).
He has also complained of being "unfairly vilified" over the 158-year-old firm's collapse in 2008. In a defiant rebuttal of accusations of mismanagement at Lehman, the veteran chief executive has claimed that a court-appointed bankruptcy examiner distorted the truth in an exhaustive 2,200 page report. It was published last month and found grounds for legal claims against Fuld and three senior lieutenants.
In a written testimony ahead of an appearance today before a Congressional committee, Fuld maintains that Lehman's finances were broadly sound and that the bank was a victim of unprecedented turmoil in the economy: "The world is still being told that Lehman had a huge capital hole. It did not."
Fuld says he has no memory of a now notorious technique known as Repo 105 which, according to the bankruptcy examiner, was a "gimmick" used to temporarily improve Lehman's finances at the end of each reporting period. "I have absolutely no recollection whatsoever of hearing anything about Repo 105 transactions while I was CEO of Lehman. Nor do I have any recollection of seeing documents that related to Repo 105 transactions."
A former air force pilot nicknamed "the gorilla" for his hard-charging style, Fuld ran Lehman from 1993 until the spectacular implosion of the firm in September 2008 that briefly threatened to destabilise the global financial system. He was paid some $350m between 2000 and 2008. Since stepping down, he has kept a low public profile, splitting his time between a ranch in Idaho and work for a new firm, Matrix Advisors.
In his testimony, he lets rip at the court-appointed author of the Lehman bankruptcy report, Anton Valukas, saying: "I believe that the examiner's report distorted the relevant facts and that the press, in turn, distorted the examiner's report. The result is that Lehman and its people have been unfairly vilified."
The findings by Valukas, a former federal prosecutor, raised questions not only about Fuld and his colleagues, but over the conduct of Lehman's auditor, Ernst & Young, and the London law firm Linklaters, which advised the bank. Both were criticised for allowing a misleading picture of Lehman's financial position to be given to investors.
Fuld has consistently refused to accept that he did anything wrong at Lehman. His testimony says he oversaw an organisation of 28,000 people in 40 countries and insists nobody ever raised concerns with him over accounting tricks.
He said: "Lehman was forced into bankruptcy amid one of the most turbulent periods of our economic history, which culminated in a catastrophic crisis of confidence. That crisis also brought down other financial institutions, but they were saved because of government support."
Fuld has previously said he would wonder "until the day they put me in the ground" why the US government allowed Lehman to go bust.