NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Unraveling the biggest-ever U.S. bankruptcy case isn't cheap.

A report released Thursday by the examiner in the Lehman Brothers Chapter 11 case exposed the games the defunct investment bank's executives played to stay in Wall Street's good graces.

The report showed auditors at Ernst & Young were less than vigilant in their vetting of Lehman's financial reports, and that bankers including JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) hastened the firm's demise by aggressively seizing collateral.

The report, by Anton Valukis of Chicago law firm Jenner & Block, was 15 months in the making and cost at least $38 million, going by the latest fee schedule Lehman's estate filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

That's just a drop in what is...