This is very similar to what Enron did, although the vehicle was different - they moved liabilities off the books to make themselves look less leveraged. Enron

This is very similar to what Enron did, although the vehicle was different - they moved liabilities off the books to make themselves look less leveraged. Enron did this through shell companies owned by Fastow - Fuld/Lehman did this through abusing a standard rule and then getting E&Y to hold their nose and say that these transactions were not material and did not involve reporting the information to shareholders. To me, that's fraud. I'm not alone in this analysis: "The segment, which marks the first time Vakulas has been interviewed since filing his nine-volume, 2,200-page report two years ago, claims there is sufficient evidence to prosecute officials at Lehman. According to Vakulas, Lehman Brothers was intentionally misrepresenting their financial health." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/lehman-brothers-investigator-60-minutes-fudged-numbers_n_1445421.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/lehman-brothers-inv... The key question, to me, is whether they knowingly misrepresented the health of the company in reporting to shareholders. If it ever went to trial I think the answer would be "yes" - but of course we'll never know because no one in the US government wants to go after them. At least the NY Attorney General went after E&Y and extracted a minor settlement (albeit one with no admission of wrongdoing): http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/business/dealbook/ernst-young-in-settlement-over-lehman-brothers.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/business/dealbook/ernst-yo...