Creditors of Lehman Brothers, whose bankruptcy three years ago set off a global financial crisis, have asked a federal court to force US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to testify in a civil case.
Arguing the Treasury Department has refused requests for his testimony, the committee representing the creditors filed a request with the US District Court in Washington for an order "compelling" Geithner "to comply on or before March 16" to an August subpoena, according to court documents filed late Thursday.
The committee noted that it had served Geithner with a subpoena on August 9 to provide testimony in a suit between Lehman Brothers and the creditors against J.P. Morgan Chase Bank. The Treasury Department "refuses to provide the creditors of Lehman Brothers with key evidence from... Geithner, who was a crucial witness to certain key events at issue in the creditors' litigation with J.P. Morgan," the committee said.
In their lawsuit, the creditors accuse J.P. Morgan chief Jamie Dimon and other executives of using inside information from the government and the New York Federal Reserve, then headed by Geithner, in the final week before Lehman collapsed on September 15, 2008. J.P. Morgan was Lehman's primary bank and demanded a pre-bankruptcy guarantee of $8.6 billion. The Wall Street bank is now Lehman's single largest creditor and insists it should be repaid before any other creditor, according to the documents. More than 200 witnesses in the case have provided out-of-court oral testimony ahead of the March 16 conclusion of discovery, the pre-trial period during which evidence and information is gathered.
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