By Joseph Checkler 

NEW YORK--A former Lehman Brothers star trader secretly recorded several conversations that he says prove Lehman owes him more than $83 million in bonuses for his work done mostly in 2008, even though he received a similar amount when Barclays PLC bought Lehman.

Testifying on the second day of a trial over whether Lehman owes its ex-employees bonus money, former top global rates trader Jonathan Hoffman said he taped the conversations as a note-taking method, without telling parties he was recording them.

In a negotiation with Rich Ricci, then the operating chief of Barclays's investment bank, Mr. Hoffman told Mr. Ricci, "I guess I'm surprised that my contract isn't just being made whole," according to a recording of the 2008 conversation played in the courtroom Thursday.

The main question is whether Barclays paid Mr. Hoffman the $83 million bonus as part of honoring his Lehman contract, or as part of a new deal. Lawyers for James W. Giddens, the trustee winding down Lehman's brokerage business, say Lehman owes Mr. Hoffman nothing since the trader's Barclays contract was essentially the same as his Lehman deal and Barclays paid him the money.

During cross-examination, Mr. Hoffman told Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP's Savvas A. Foukas, a lawyer for Mr. Giddens, that once he realized Barclays wasn't assuming his Lehman contract, he asked for something different from Barclays. "I'm not asking what you asked for sir, please answer my question," Mr. Foukas said.

Mr. Hoffman eventually said, "I got paid for the work I did at Barclays." His contract at Barclays was substantially similar to the Lehman deal.

Judge Shelley Chapman, the Lehman bankruptcy judge who is presiding over the trial, seemed more concerned about whether he got the bonus money and less concerned with who gave it to him.

The judge asked Mr. Hoffman if he would have been satisfied if Barclays simply gave him the Lehman bonus money and then started negotiating a new contract.

"If someone gave me $83 million, yes," Mr. Hoffman said.

Later, Mr. Foukas asked Mr. Hoffman whether he would have been "happy" if Barclays declined to honor his Lehman contract, but still gave him the $83 million bonus.

"Not as happy as if I had worked at other places," Mr. Hoffman said.

Mr. Hoffman made nearly $550 million in profits for Lehman during 2008, and his trading represented 10% of the bank's total profit during 2007. So when Lehman collapsed, Barclays wasn't his only option, he said. Earlier in the day, his lawyer, White & Case LLP's Douglas Baumstein, asked about a meeting Mr. Hoffman had with Kenneth Griffin's Citadel LLC, a well-known Chicago-based hedge fund.

"Were you confident you could get an offer from Citadel," Mr. Baumstein asked. "I'm still confident I could get an offer from Citadel," Mr. Hoffman replied.

When Mr. Baumstein later asked Mr. Hoffman what he wished he would have done differently, Mr. Hoffman said, "Worked for Millennium," referring to Israel Englander's Millennium Management LLC, a New York hedge fund with which Mr. Hoffman said he interviewed.

Judge Chapman later asked Mr. Hoffman, who also said he had a five-hour meeting with Steven A. Cohen at the Connecticut offices of SAC Capital Advisors, if the Barclays deal was the best deal on the table.

"I don't think I took the best deal," Mr. Hoffman said. He ended up working at Barclays for about five years, making about $1.25 billion in profits for the bank, he said. He said he is currently not working.

Mr. Giddens, the trustee, has reached settlements with many former Lehman employees seeking old bonus money. Judge Chapman set aside Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for a trial for Mr. Hoffman and three other employees. It is unclear when she might rule.

Even if the claims are accepted, the former employees would be paid at less than the full amount, since only customers of the brokerage received all they are owed. Mr. Hoffman and the others would be considered general unsecured creditors, who have thus far received about 27 cents on the dollar and could eventually get up to 40 cents, or more.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., once the nation's fourth-largest investment bank by assets under management, collapsed into the largest bankruptcy ever in September 2008 with $613 billion in liabilities.

The filing sent markets into turmoil and helped trigger a global financial crisis. Lehman's brokerage business was quickly sold to Barclays, and the company's New York-based holding company officially exited bankruptcy in 2012.

Individual customers of the U.S. brokerage, which is under the purview of the bankruptcy court but not technically in bankruptcy protection, received about $92.3 billion almost immediately after Lehman collapsed. In all, Mr. Giddens has already paid back more than $112 billion to creditors and customers of the brokerage. Customers get 100% of their money back, while unsecured creditors like the former employees get much less.

The Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. unit, which itself has paid back about $100 billion to creditors including internal affiliates, is still winding down and selling its remaining holdings, a process that is expected to continue for several more years. Judge Chapman is overseeing both proceedings.

Write to Joseph Checkler at joseph.checkler@wsj.com

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