The wind-down of Joseph M. Gregory's once vast fortune has hit a new level: Lehman Brothers' former chief operating officer has listed his Long Island mansion for sale.
Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty has listed a six-bedroom, eight-bathroom house in Lloyd Harbor, N.Y. The street address of the property - which includes a 15,000-square-foot main house and a 6,000-square-foot guest house - matches public records for Mr. Gregory. The asking price is $22 million.
Mr. Gregory's home was one of several abodes owned by Lehman executives on Long Island's North Shore, the so-called Gold Coast of glittering mansions. So closely knit were top Lehman managers that they vacationed together and car-pooled together, according to a 2010 article in Vanity Fair.
But unlike many of those executives, Mr. Gregory had a proclivity for conspicuous consumption. A longtime lieutenant to Lehman's chief executive, Richard S. Fuld Jr., he was known for leading a highfly ing lifestyle that included taking a helicopter from his Lloyd Harbor home to Lehman's offices.
From “Too Big to Fail,†by DealBook's Andrew Ross Sorkin:
Few seemed to flaunt their personal wealth as much as he did. The helicopter commute was just the start of it. He and his wife, Niki, bought a house in Bridgehampton for some $19 million, and even though it was completely decorated, they had it redone top to bottom with their own designer. He drove a Bentley and encouraged his wife to take shopping trips to Los Angeles via a private plane.
But to finance his reportedly $15 million a year in expenses with a fortune mostly tied up in Lehman stock, Mr. Gregory kept his holdings in a margin account. He eventually resigned from the firm in 2008, as Mr. Fuld faced pressure from numerous members of his own executive committee over the investment bank's deteriorating financial health.
After Lehman filed for bankruptcy in 2008, Mr . Gregory has steadily sold off parts of that fortune. Among the first to go were the helicopter and a $4.4 million Park Avenue apartment. He also reportedly tried to sell his Hamptons home in 2010, two years after initially trying to find a buyer.
News of Mr. Gregory's latest real estate listing was reported earlier by Business Insider.
