Bob Diamond was in a hurry. Charismatic and known as much for his lavish pay as for his status as a swashbuckling Wall Street banker, he had to get to New York – and under a cloak of secrecy.
It was September 2008 and the Chelsea FC fanatic running Barclays’ investment bank in London had only just got off the red-eye from his last trip across the Atlantic. A big opportunity had come up in Manhattan that was too good to miss: Lehman Brothers was on the brink and Barclays had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to buy it. Finally, the British bank that can trace it roots back to 1690 had a shot at taking on the giants of Wall Street.
Lehman might have got itself
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