Marubeni rejects Lehman Bros suit over bogus investment scheme
TOKYO —
Marubeni Corp on Saturday rejected a 35.2-billion yen lawsuit by Lehman Brothers over a bogus investment scheme allegedly involving two employees of the trading giant.
In a statement, Marubeni said it had “no payment obligation whatsoever” to the U.S. investment bank, which two weeks ago filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court seeking compensation as a victim of fraud.
“The case would never have occurred if Lehman had exercised the due care typically expected and required in light of the extraordinary financial amount of the alleged transaction,” Marubeni said.
Lehman Brothers said it was defrauded out of 35.2 billion yen ($352 million) through a hoax in which Marubeni employees used forged documents and an impostor to solicit funds supposedly to refurbish hospitals.
“The transaction in question was so irregular, and from the amateurish contents of the forged documents, that Lehman should have naturally been suspicious,” Marubeni’s statement read.
Marubeni has denied any responsibility. Two Marubeni employees—who were fired in early March—and a venture called Asclepius Ltd allegedly used faked documents which promised Marubeni would assume debt repayments in the event of insolvency of the firm.
Asclepius, a wholly owned unit of medical consulting firm LTT Bio-Pharma Co, has since filed for bankruptcy.
Under the scheme, Asclepius lent funds to hospitals through a third party for the purchase of medical equipment from Asclepius or Marubeni. Investors in the funds were supposed to receive repayment with interest later.
The two former employees and Asclepius told investors to expect a 10% return even if the projects failed, and more if they went well, Japanese media said, quoting sources close to the case.
They used a conference room at Marubeni for meetings with investors and presented a fake in-house Marubeni document to make investors believe Marubeni executives had endorsed the projects, media said.
The incident came to light on March 6 when an investor contacted Marubeni after failing to receive any payments.
Wire reports
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borscht
I remember an earlier comment by someone else on another article about taking responsibility even if you had nothing to do with it. The earlier case was poison in a bottle of tea and the managers of the tea company were apologizing. The poster said something to the effect that US managers could learn to take responsibility even if their company wasn't responsible. Will that poster insist Marubeni take responsibility for their employees and cough up the money Lehman wants or will they not even apologize for their employees? Marubeni, weren't they the ones responsible for the 'Lockheed' scandal, too, in which they allegedly bribed a few government officials (Tanaka)?
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westurn
Actually borscht, American companies take responsibilty for items they don't sell all the time. I once had an executive friend that worked at Fred Meyers in the US. A women brought in a pair of shoes she had purchased at another store and wanted a refund. She had no receipt, no bag, no proof whatsoever that the shoes had been purchased at FM. But my manager friend eagerly took the shoes back, paid her what she said they were worth and helped her out the door. I asked him why he would do such a thing. He said fighting a lawsuit in court would be much more expensive that $35 for a pair of shoes ! Sound logic if you ask me !
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proxy
Lehman Bros got ripped off but judging by all the right downs they are doing they could be desperate to get their money back.
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