In December, a US bankruptcy court judge approved plans to end Lehman's Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and move it toward liquidation. Its full dissolution depends on settling creditors' claims worth around $US450 billion. Lehman, the poster child of the global financial meltdown, declared bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, after its risky bets on the US housing market turned sour. The officials managing the bankruptcy have called it "the largest and most complex in history," involving 7,000 legal entities in 40 countries, and 75 distinct court proceedings. Creditors continue to battle over how the payouts are made. In mid-February, Lehman's creditors asked a federal court to force US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to testify in a civil suit against JPMorgan's role in the bankruptcy.