Appearing before a congressional committee Monday, Lehman Bros. CEO Richard S. Fuld Jr. wondered why the federal government did not rescue the 158-year-old firm at about the same time it took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and agreed to an $85 billion federal loan for insurance giant AIG.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson decided not to guarantee the sale of Lehman, which was knee-deep in risky investments in mortgage-backed securities. The company filed for bankruptcy protection Sept. 15, a collapse that prompted President Bush's $700 billion rescue package.

Mr. Fuld blamed short sellers who devalued the company's stock, poor regulation and a "financial tsunami" that overwhelmed the company.

He also said: "I take full responsibility for the decisions that I made and for the actions that I took based on the information that we had at the time. I believe those decisions were both prudent and appropriate. In the end, despite all our efforts, we were overwhelmed."

But the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wanted to know whether Mr. Fuld and other executives purposely misled investors about the company's financial state. Committee members read internal company e-mails and documents showing the company was well aware of the crisis even while publicly proclaiming its health.

The CEO said he "firmly believed" the company would prevail by reducing its debt and raising money through the spinoff of its commercial real estate unit. "There was certainly no attempt to mislead anyone," he said.

But the part that most rankled the committee was Mr. Fuld's emergence from the ruins with at least $350 million, which he estimated he was paid from 2000 to 2007.

"Is that fair for the CEO of a company that is now bankrupt to have made that kind of money? It's just unimaginable to so many people," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the committee.

Mr. Waxman also showed that four days before the firm went bankrupt, its compensation committee recommended awarding three departing executives more than $20 million in golden parachutes. Thus, at the same time the company was pleading with the federal government for a bailout, it was arranging millions in bonuses for fired executives.

Meanwhile, shareholders were wiped out and Lehman employees lost $10 billion.

"You made all this money by taking risks with other people's money," Rep. Waxman said. "The system worked for you, but it didn't seem to work for the rest of the country and the taxpayers, who now have to pay $700 billion to bail out our economy."

This is an aspect of the crisis that most exasperates people. Such compensation is far from fair. It is wrong.