Lehman Brothers yesterday said that former top trader Jonathan Hoffman is seeking “double recovery” on his bonus from 2008, in day one of a trial over whether Lehman owes Mr. Hoffman and three other employees millions in back bonuses, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Hoffman, a former global rates trader who at the time of Lehman’s collapse was the bank’s third-highest paid rank-and-file employee, was paid an $84 million bonus by Barclays PLC, which bought Lehman’s brokerage in the days after the investment bank filed for bankruptcy, Lehman says. A lawyer for Hoffman argued in court that it doesn’t matter that Barclays paid him a bonus. Since the bonus agreement with Barclays was separate from Hoffman’s Lehman contract, the lawyer said, the Lehman estate still owes him $84 million for his work for 2008.
