Freddie Mac claims that it transferred Lehman $450 million on Aug. 19 and an additional $750 million the next day, with an agreement that the funds would be returned by Sept. 15. But the funds were never returned, and Freddie Mac isn't listed as one of the bank's unsecured creditors.
Judge James M. Peck of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern
District of New York in Manhattan will consider the request at a Nov. 5
hearing.
The news is no joke, but it certainly sounds similar to the old tale about the Priest, Doctor, Lawyer and the Dead Man.
A dying man gathered his best friends -- a clergyman, a doctor, and a lawyer -- to his bedside and handed each of them an envelope containing $25,000 in cash. He made them all promise that at his wake, they would place the three envelops in his coffin. He told them that he wanted to have enough money to enjoy the next life.
A week later the man died. At the wake, the lawyer and doctor and clergyman each concealed an envelope in the coffin and bid their old client and friend farewell.
By chance, these three met several months later. Soon the clergyman, feeling guilty, blurted out a confession saying that there was only $10,000 in the envelope he placed in the coffin. He felt, rather than waste all the money, he would send it to a mission in South America. The priest asked for their forgiveness.
The doctor, moved by the gentle Clergyman's sincerity, confessed that he too had kept some of the money for a worthy medical charity. The envelope, he admitted, had only $8000 in it. He said he too could not bring himself to waste the money so frivolously when it could be used to benefit others.
By this time the Lawyer was seething with self-righteous outrage. He expressed his deep disappointment in the felonious behavior of two of his oldest and most trusted friends. "I am the only one who kept my promise to our dying friend. I want you both to know that the envelope I placed in the coffin contained the full amount.
The other men looked down in embarrassment and the lawyer continued, "Indeed, only I honored the deathbed wishes of our great friend. My envelope contained my personal check for the entire $25,000."
In a comedy of errors, Freddie Mac wants to investigate transactions regarding $1.2 billion that bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. owes it, while the debtor is trying to stop the transfer of its stock. 
