Fallen ex-Lehman CEO Dick Fuld hits comeback trail

Wall Street’s gorilla wants back in the jungle.

Richard “Dick” Fuld, the notoriously competitive CEO who led Lehman Brothers to its dem💙ise seven years ago, will test how forgiving Wall Street can be on Thursday wh꧂en he’s expected to discuss for the first time the bankruptcy that was the tipping point of the financial crisis.

Indeed, Fuld, 69, is one of the chief culprits of the 2008 crisis. He and Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo built up their respective companies’ positions in✃ the subprime mortgages that eventually went bust — ta꧑king the economy with them.

And while Thursday’s speech won’t be his first💯 public appearance — he has a consulting company and spoke at a college earlier this year — it’s telling that he’s chosen a conference on penny stocks to tell his side of the story.

“In Dick🅷 Fuld’s case, I think it was, to a degree, an unfair outcome,” Joseph Grano, the former chairman and CEO of UBS Financial Services, told The Post. “I can tell you that among the people who know him, he’s not toxic at all.”

During the weeks leading up to Lehman’s Sept. 15, 2008, bankruptcy filing, Ben Bernanke, then chairman of the Fed, Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary, and Timothy Geithner, head of the New York Fed, had tried to get Barclays and Bank of America to buy tꩵhe ailing Lehman, but eventually let💧 the firm collapse without a bailout.

Fuld’s defenders say the bank wasn’t bankꩵrupt and simply faced a short-te🥂rm cash crisis — a distinction that didn’t make a difference for the largest bankruptcy ever in the US for the $600 billion institution.

But if Fuld finds his way back in💮to finaꦏnce, he’ll discover that today’s Wall Street is in many ways a reaction against the Lehman collapse.

Still, if Fuld can make it back into the public’s good graces at🌸 all, it will be a long climb, Grano said.

“He’s a little bit of a poster child,” Grano adde🌌d. “And do I think it’s a bit unfair? Yes.♑”