Lehman & The Nuclear B.mb

The firm apparently acquired the uranium cake under a 'matured commodities contract', and is waiting for a rebound in commodity prices before offloading it and sticking the proceeds in the fund to repay creditors. The radioactive material, which is thought to be stored somewhere in Canada, is likely to be sold piecemeal over the next two years.

And talking of Lehman and bombs, one might soon go off after the report in the Times newspaper about the huge fees being charged by professional advisers winding down the firm. According to the newspaper, the accountants and lawyers who are looking at the winding-down of Lehman's European operations received a massive $148m in fees in the last 6 months alone, and charges in the future are thought likely to accrue on a similar basis. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the European administrator also paid an additional $171m in the 6 month period to the 800 former Lehman staff responsible for unwinding millions of trades made between the firm and various hedge funds and other counterparties.

And Reuters reports that Madoff International, the London-based arm of fraudster Bernie Madoff's empire, has filed for bankruptcy protection in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The news agency also reports that US brokerage firm Raymond James has warned that it expects to be only 'nominally profitable' in its second-quarter, and will probably make around $75m in loan loss provisions and $40m in charge-offs in the period.

Finally, La Tribune reports that French bank Societe Generale lost around a dozen traders following the payment of bonuses last month.

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