On Capitol Hill, the House Oversight Committee has held the first of a series of promised hearings on the financial crisis. Richard Fuld, the CEO of the failed investment bank Lehman Brothers, appeared before skeptical lawmakers.

Richard Fuld: “But I wake up every single night thinking what could I have done differently? And it’s been going on. What could I have done differently? In certain conversations, what could I have said? What should I have done? And I have searched myself every single night.”

Fuld went on to disclose he personally took home more than $300 million since 2000, including $60 million in bonuses. He also admitted Lehman executives were assured their bonuses would not be affected, even as the company sought a federal bailout. Three departing executives were given “special payments” of $20 million. House Oversight Chair Henry Waxman criticized Fuld and other Lehman executives.

Rep. Henry Waxman: “I accept the fact that you are still haunted every night, as you said, by the wonder, wondering whether you could have done something different, whether this could have had a different ending. But I must say, that statement you made that the system works because you lost the value of some of your shares really doesn’t sound right to me, because the system that you lived under gave you a very, very generous reward when your company was highly leveraged and everything was going up, and that’s the American way, but when the leverage meant that you were taking huge losses when the values were not holding up, you still got substantial compensation.”

Fuld also denied misleading investors, despite being shown internal documents describing panic at Lehman in the months leading to its collapse.