Lehman Brothers emerges from bankruptcy

Three and half years after filing for Chapter 11, failed investment bank Lehman Brothers emerged from bankruptcy today, CNN reported.

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Its bankruptcy at the height of Wall Street’s financial meltdown was the largest in history, and the defunct bank has spent nearly $1.6 billion on lawyers and consultants since then, CNN reported.

Lehman’s main business now is redistributing $65 billion to its creditors and investors, Reuters reported. That’s a small portion of the estimated $613 billion in debts the bank held in 2008, CNN noted.

Some 433 employees, down from 25,000 in 2008, are busying themselves with this task, according to Reuters. Once it is completed, the company will shut down, CNN reported.

"We've been liquidating since the date of filing," Steven Cohn, Lehman's treasurer in bankruptcy, told CNN. "Our job was to marshal assets and we've gone from very little cash to managing about $30 billion in cash."

Now that it is out of bankruptcy, Lehman no longer needs to get permission from the court for every asset sale, Reuters reported.

A first round of cash payouts, totaling about $10 billion, will be repaid to creditors in mid-April, CNN reported.

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