Paging Sergeant Schultz
By Invictus - April 20th, 2010, 3:00PM
The over-lawyered former Lehman CEO Richard Fuld, in prepared testimony to the House Financial Services Committee:
“Let me start by saying that 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.”
The Sergeant Schultz defense is among my very favorites.
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April 20th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
All this bad crap happened, but nobody seems to have done it. Must have been a miracle. Truly the lord’s work.
April 20th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
So he is either the most incompetent clown to ever run a big company (not knowing about multiple $50 billion transactions ???), or he is just lying.
What is it pall; are you Fuld of sh!t or just an incompetent clown?
April 20th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
I see nothing. I didn’t even get up this morning…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ag4nkSh7Q&feature=related
April 20th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
I’m no lawyer, but I don’t even understand how this helps him. Didn’t he sign a Sarbanes-Oxley letter saying he was responsible for all the financials? If they were not accurate, claiming he didn’t know anything about it isn’t supposed to get him off the hook.
April 20th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
@DeDude: Or maybe it’s both?
April 20th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
“I can’t recall”.
Worked just fine for Oliver North.
April 20th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
He’s trying the Bernie Ebbers’s Worldcom defense. Ebbers got 23 years.
Look , Fuld’s #2 guy Bart McDade is on the record saying that Fuld knew damn well about the repo 105′s.
April 20th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
the dude could be telling the truth-
we have to assume then that he had another name for 105 repos- for all we know he called it the crazy end of quarter voodoo shit that made the leverage look good
April 20th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
For some reason, Americans love to lie…and love to pretend there is no truth. We had built a facade for so long, we started to believe it ourselves.
April 20th, 2010 at 5:48 pm
I say lets move all these investigations to Nuremberg and see how they go over there…
April 20th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
Reagan – Iran Contra, Clinton – Lewinsky, Fuld – Lehman collapse,……. In our country and culture, the best outcome for the guilty comes from deny, deny, deny. If Fuld was honest, I argue that his punishment would be worse. Srgnt Schultz knew that too.
April 20th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
wow, great post, that is, when I read it at Mish’s site yesterday:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/04/lehman-ceos-sergeant-schultz-defense-of.html
April 20th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
Mr Ritholtz — I loved Sgt Schultz. Richard Fuld is no Sgt Schultz…
I watched the hearing and was amazed at Fuld’s performance; he totally destroyed any confidence I had ever had about CEO’s, their intelligence, or competence. To be charitable, i did have moments when i thought he was on “drugs.” Otherwise I would have to conclude that he was/is a total nitwit. At least Sgt Schultz had the saving grace of being naively “sweet” and funny even though he had all the baggage of being a Nazi guard.
Is there any saving grace that Richard Fuld may conceivably have? He reminded me of the used car salesman that conned me into buying a bummer of a car when I was 16 — and thereby taught me a very valuable lesson in life skills. After watching the cringe inducing testimony/answers of Fuld, I can only wish that the Fed and all the other regulators had learned an equivalent lesson early in their careers. The highlight of the hearing today was that Prof. Black was the only one that seemed to appreciate the ironic humor/tragedy of the situation — the pathos was presented by the former CPA at Lehman, Mr Lee.
April 20th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Oh Please…
6,000 hits for “Lehman Sargeant Schultz” BR didn’t steal it, it’s urban dictionary type stuff at this point, it’s on Wikipedia for crying out loud.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot_defense
Are you angry too, ben22?
April 20th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
@ben22
For the record, I don’t visit Mish’s site and did not lift the post from him. As Venn pointed out, it’s become a pretty standard reference in our lexicon for a head-in-the-sand defense. No apology here.
April 20th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
He never forgot the compensation committee…
April 20th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
Yes, what a surprise that he would open by saying that?! Unfortunately for him, unless I am mistaken, his title was CEO and it was he who signed off on all the Financial Statements. If he didn’t bother to understand what he was signing, that makes him both stupid and still criminally responsible.
Talking of titles, now that GS appears to be trying to blame it all on Tourre (Great recruitment tool; You’ll be on your own if WE get caught?) doesn’t that Executive in his Executive Director title convey that he was acting for and on behalf of the firm? It would in most industries but the reason I ask is that I know in Banks titles don’t mean very much (The Office janitor is a Vice President?)
April 21st, 2010 at 2:42 am
It seems to me, if you plead the “I was a moron while I was CEO” you have to immediately give back all the money you got paid. Right then.
April 21st, 2010 at 10:36 am
The initial defensive bleatings of a guilty man.
April 21st, 2010 at 12:47 pm
William Black Nailed it in his testimony.
FRAUD, pure and simple.
April 21st, 2010 at 10:27 pm
It’s the “piano player defense.”
The bordello piano player who said, “I just played the piano – I didn’t know what was going on upstairs.”
Don’t forget Robert Rubin at City – he didn’t know anything either.