JPMorgan objects to Lehman's request for probe

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said creditors of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. are improperly seeking to blame it for the investment bank's collapse and that their request to investigate JPMorgan should be denied.

Lehman's creditors on Oct. 2 asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James M. Peck to let them interview a witness and request relevant documents from JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank by deposits. The committee representing Lehman's unsecured creditors said JPMorgan caused the liquidity crisis that led to Lehman's collapse.

JPMorgan never froze any Lehman accounts as the creditors claim, attorneys for the bank wrote in an objection to the request filed today in Manhattan bankruptcy court.

"The committee seeks to cast the blame on JPMC as the purported cause of Lehman's liquidity crisis," JPMorgan said. The bank provided billions of dollars in loans to keep Lehman's brokerage operating when "all other parties were fleeing from exposure to Lehman."

A hearing on the creditors' request for a probe is scheduled for Oct. 16.

JPMorgan, the clearing agent for trading at Lehman's brokerage before that business was purchased by Barclays Capital Inc., was named in court papers as Lehman's largest secured creditor, with an estimated claim of $23 billion.

Lehman filed the biggest bankruptcy in history on Sept. 15 with debt of $613 billion as of May 31.