Lehman crash leads to focus on hedge fund assets

In June this year, Lehman Brothers trustee James Giddens issued a brief, but not insignificant, statement: hedge funds and other brokerage customers of the defunct bank would be paid back in full after having their assets frozen for nearly five years. About $40 billion in hedge fund assets were frozen as a result of Lehman’s collapse in 2008, of which $22 billion had been re-hypothecated, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the administrator for Lehman Brothers International Euro…