Top executives at Lehman Brothers’ New York office, who were at the helm during history’s largest corporate bankruptcy, have been guaranteed the lion’s share of a $2.5 billion bonus pot.

Lehman had “walled off” the fund, telling buyer Barclays Capital that it couldn’t use the money for anything but severance payments or bonuses.

In bankruptcy court, British-based Barclays said it will use the cash to retain Lehman’s most valued employees – particularly eight key directors.

Those “elite eight” also have been guaranteed $10 million to $25 million salaries for two years.

The most wanted include longtime execs Michael Gelband, the bank’s global head of Capital Markets since June, and Eric Felder and Hyung Soon Lee, global co-heads of Fixed Income, positions both men were promoted to this month, the Sunday Times of London reported.

Gelband lives in tony Short Hills, NJ. Felder lives in a plush West Village pad and owns two Ferraris and a Land Rover, Department of Motor Vehicles records show.

The platinum payout will go to executives who rode the collapse of the nation’s fourth-largest investment bank. In the past year, the company’s stock price dropped from $68 a share to as low as 21 cents, and since June 2007, the bank has laid off 6,000 workers.

A Lehman spokeswoman denied that all the bonus cash would go to a few execs.

“It’s absolutely untrue that the bonus pool is being reserved for a small number of people,” said Monique Wise.

Some defended the bonuses, saying Barclays couldn’t run Lehman without keeping top executives.

“It’s unimaginable to me that they can run the business without people,” said Lehman’s financial adviser, Barry Ridings, of Lazard Ltd.

Barclays President Bob Diamond told The Times that the bonuses will be dispensed carefully.

“You can expect us to manage this with the same discipline and performance terms that we have at BarCap [Barclays Capital],” he said.

He asked all 10,000 Lehman staffers to show up for work tomorrow, although over the next three months, Barclays could ax thousands of them.

Felder, who spoke to The Post last night, declined to discuss any cushy payouts, but said that he would try to keep Lehman employees working.

“This is a tragic event for 26,000 people. The firm wants to make sure the people get jobs,” he said. “We spent a tremendous amount of time trying to make sure as many people get jobs as possible.”

The deal, which was worth $1.7 billion at the beginning of the week, may now be worth closer to $1.35 billion, which includes Lehman’s Midtown office building.

cynthia.fagen@nypost.com