PERSON OF INTEREST

Lehman CEO: I've Been 'Dumped On'

Richard Fuld not looking forward to anniversary.

Almost a year ago, Lehman Brothers collapsed and triggered the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression. A Reuters reporter tracked down the investment bank's CEO, Richard Fuld, who has since been named in nearly 40 different legal actions and handed subpoenas for three different grand-jury probes. "You don't have a gun; that's good," were Fuld's first words. "You know what? The anniversary's coming up," he continued. "I've been pummeled, I've been dumped on, and it's all going to happen again. I can handle it. You know what, let them line up." Fuld, 63, took the reins in 1994 and built the bank into the fourth-largest in the U.S. until it collapsed September 15, 2008. Fuld was called a villain and protesters demanded that he be jailed. But he maintains he was not out of touch with the bank's problems, and friends think he could make a comeback. "He's keeping a low profile but doing a lot of power lunches," a top executive at an investment bank said. "He's keeping in touch with friends on Wall Street."