Did US authorities try to palm off Lehman’s to Britain?

At 1pm on Sunday 14th September 2008, there was a fateful phone call from Tim Geithner, then head of the US Federal Reserve, to the then Chairman of the FSA.

It concerned an embryonic attempt by Barclays to buy pre-bankruptcy Lehman Brothers. I covered this in detail in an exclusive film in August featuring interviews with key players and covered more on this blog.

The FSA has today issued a remarkable detailed account as part of a US legal case that uncovered dodgy accounting this morning.

Look at paragraph 47. Geithner, having seen Bank of America pull out, actively tries to persuade the FSA chairman to grant a waiver for the need for shareholder approval of this highly controversial deal, so as to fast track it. Christopher Cox of the SEC made a further call (Paragraph 54) at 3pm to Callum McCarthy, again trying to make the case for a waiver.

The question is: did US authorities attempt to palm off a bankrupt Lehman’s on to the British taxpayer? More on this over the weekend.