Scuffle in HK Protest Over Lehman-Linked Products

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: October 31, 2008

HONG KONG (AP) --Investors in financial products linked to collapsed U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. scuffled with security guards at a bank in Hong Kong on Friday, as some 200 people protested in the financial district against institutions that sold the now worthless products.

The incident highlights anger among the thousands of Hong Kong investors who've been burnt by the Lehman collapse. The outstanding amount of the products is 20.2 billion Hong Kong dollars ($2.6 billion), according to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the territory's defacto central bank.

Several of the protesters got into a scuffle with security guards at a Hong Kong branch of Singapore bank DBS Group Holdings. No one was injured, according to an Associated Press photographer who witnessed the incident.

They were part of a larger group of 200 protesters who marched through the financial district, stopping at several banks that sold Lehman-related products holding signs that said ''major bank fraud'' and ''My money gone, I don't want to live.''

Bank spokeswoman Glendy Chu said none of the DBS security guards were injured.

Investors have complained that bank sales staff were misleading and didn't fully explain the product or connection to Lehman Brothers.

Jonathan Li, a spokesman for the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong, said the body is still investigating the complaints against the banks.

DBS said recently that most of the 360 million Singapore dollars ($243 million) in Lehman-linked structured notes sold to clients in Singapore and Hong Kong are now worthless. It has offered to pay compensation to clients.

Billions of dollars in souring debt forced Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., once the fourth-largest investment bank in the U.S., to file for bankruptcy last month amid the world's worst financial crisis in decades.