Ex-CEO Richard 'Dick' Fuld Jr., and his fellow officers at Lehman Brothers earned big bucks - hundreds of millions - in the years leading up to the bank’s collapse.  That much was known.  But new documents from the Lehman bankruptcy case reveal the extraordinary compensation bestowed on dozens of the bank’s employees in the years leading up to its demise in September 2008. Wall Street critics blame the outsize salaries of bank and brokerage employees, which created the incentive to take excessive risk, as a core reason for the global financial crisis - and once again, the proof of these contentions is in black and white. Beyond the compensation pay packages for Fuld and other top executives had previously been, two new documents prepared in January 2008 reveal the compensation numbers for for the 50 highest-paid Lehman employees.

• Robert Millard, head of Lehman’s prop trading operations was in line to make over $51 million in 2007, making him the highest-paid employee on a list of the top-50 paid employees that year.  The list shows that he was paid $44.5mn in 2006 and $3.8mn in 2005.  Mr. Millard now runs Realm Partners, a hedge fund in New York.
• Millard's 2007 pay package approximates what Fuld took down that year, which, depending on how it was calculated, was worth anywhere from $40mn to $51.6mn.
• Marvin Schwartz was #2 on the employee list.  He's the low-profile, legendary money manager at Lehman’s Neuberger Berman unit.  His pay was over $31mn in 2007, $27mn in 2006 and $nearly $15mn in 2005.  Schwartz is still at Neuberger, which spun out of Lehman and is now an independent, privately held company.
• Jonathan Hoffman drew the bronze medal for Lehman pay in 2007.  His role is listed as trading “global rates,” which is trading in government bonds and more complex instruments including derivatives tied to interest rates. It is unclear where Mr. Hoffman works today.

What Else is in the Bankruptcy Documents. There's a presentation to the board’s compensation committee in January 2008 and the compensation review process for the firm’s equity research personnel.  It is unclear how much of this compensation was paid in Lehman stock, which soon turned out to be worthless. For further details, go to:  [Dealbook, 4/27/12], and these compensation reference books:   [COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS COMMITTEE OF THE  BOARD OF DIRECTORS, 1/28/08]