Dodd calls for investigation of Lehman Brothers

Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) wants U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to form a task force to investigate accounting manipulation by Lehman Brothers and any other financial firms that were designed to shroud bad assets. 

Dodd sent a letter Friday to Holder calling for a thorough investigation of those practices and the prosecution of those involved, if necessary.  

Lehman Brothers removed about $50 billion in assets from its balance sheet at the end of the first and second quarters in 2008, using Repo 105 transactions to shrink its balance sheet, according to findings by a U.S.-Trustee appointed examiner. 

In the letter Dodd wrote that those transactions were used in a "manner that deceived investors and creditors about its true financial state."