Barclays in billion-dollar appeal to US court

James Giddens, the trustee in charge of liquidating Lehman's brokerage and making sure customers receive their assets, has identified about $6.7bn (4.4bn) in cash and securities that he said was wrongfully transferred to Barclays.

But Barclays, which bought Lehman Brothers Holding after the investment firm's collapse, contends that the trustee is seeking to change the terms of the original sale order. Barclays is also asking the New York court to order delivery of all undelivered assets.

Barclays said it would not have done the deal if it had not been promised billions in assets in various accounts.

The company said: "The Trustee cannot now (after market conditions have radically improved) disavow the terms of the deal that made survival possible."

Lehman filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors on September 15, 2008, the largest US bankruptcy filing in history. Its flagship US brokerage business was sold to Barclays less than a week later for about $1.85bn.

Lehman has asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck to make changes to the September 2008 sale order that authorised the hastily-arranged deal and to force Barclays to return assets to its bankruptcy estate.