Lehman Brothers is to investigate whether the sale of its US brokerage unit to Barclays Capital was undervalued, resulting in a “windfall” to the UK-listed bank of possibly billions of dollars, according to the Financial Times.

Lawyers for Lehman Brothers said they have become aware of “apparent material discrepancies” relating both to Barclays’ obligation to pay employee bonuses and other sums which affected the sale price and to asset transfers related to repurchase agreements conducted during the week that the sale was negotiated.

“In the aggregate, these apparent discrepancies may have resulted in a windfall to Barclays at the expense of the estate, its creditors and other parties of interest, in an amount that could reach into the billions of dollars,” the court documents say.

Barclays, which did not comment to the FT, paid $1.5 billion for the Lehman unit days after the parent filed for bankruptcy last September.

The UK bank did not immediately return enquiries from WealthBriefing on the matter.