Sympathy for the Devils, Slight Return

The owner of the National Hockey League’s troubled New Jersey Devils says Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s bankruptcy administrators are shortchanging his claim against his former employer by millions of dollars.

Jeffrey Vanderbeek, the ex-Lehman executive who bought the Devils about eight years ago and whose hold on the club is now said to be shaky, initially sought $61.1 million from the failed investment bank’s bankruptcy estate. Vanderbeek, who headed global risk management, private equity and strategy at Lehman, said the firm owes him under the separation agreement he inked in 2004, the year he left Wall Street and took control of the Devils.

Last month, Lehman’s bankruptcy administrators cut most of Vanderbeek’s request but allowed a $3.2 million unsecured claim.

Vanderbeek isn’t contesting the reduction of the claim but he’s taking issue with the discount rate the Lehman plan administrator used to calculate the present value of what he’s owed under a supplemental Lehman retirement plan.

Vanderbeek, 54, says the administrator used an excessive interest rate to discount his unsecured claim, which should really be $5.8 million.

Vanderbeek’s continued ownership of the Devils has come into question after the team skipped a loan payment last year. The New York Post reported last month that the NHL had a plan to seize the team from Vanderbeek. But the league later denied the report.

Neither Vanderbeek nor his lawyer could be reached for comment.

Lehman’s Sept. 15, 2008, bankruptcy filing ranks as the largest ever. The company exited bankruptcy earlier this year and has begun making distributions to creditors. Under Lehman’s Chapter 11 plan, unsecured creditors like Vanderbeek will recover about 20 cents on the dollar on their claims.