Rebel Traders – Analysis Without The Hype

Bank of America charged with civil fraud

Ney York attorney general Andrew Cuomo filed civil securities fraud charges against former Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis along with the former CFO.

The charges allege that they (Ken Lewis and the CFO) decided not to disclose mounting losses at Merrill Lynch before getting the approval from the shareholders to acquire the firm in the shotgun wedding. Separately, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reached a deal to settle allegations of misleading investors and Bank of America will pay penalties of $150 million. The new settlement still requires a judge’s approval.

The new charges brought on by NY Attorney General are civil fraud charges. If found guilty, then former CEO Ken Lewis and the CFO may face more than just ‘a fine’

Remember the MOVE YOUR MONEY movement which I strongly support.

The full complaint can be read below:

Andrew Cuomo’s Lawsuit Against Bank of America and Ken Lewis

Good article on the Merrill / Bank of America saga in this months ‘The Atlantic”

Last September, as Wall Street turned to rubble and panic threatened to come unleashed, Ken Lewis, the CEO of Bank of America, agreed to swallow Merrill Lynch, one of the country’s most toxic investment houses. The deal was not altogether voluntary; as details have slowly emerged, the coercive role of the Fed and Treasury has loomed larger. What exactly happened in the weeks leading up to the merger? Did the deal save us all from economic apocalypse? And what does the government’s unprecedented role in it portend for the future of our economy?

The full story can be read here…

RebelTraders Editorial: Bank of America should be dismantled and sold for scrap, maybe this way the tax payers can get back the $45 Billion that BofA still owes us. For the record I support all boycotts of banks who have been living on tax payer funding which includes BofA

Perhaps yesterdays revelation that Merrill Lynch, under the stewardship of John Thain, gave out Billions of dollars in bonuses just days before they were purchased by Bank of America. And then later announced they had huge losses and needed more Government (tax payer) money.

I think Ken Lewis (CEO) of Bank of America was genuinely pissed off about John Thain’s actions. But, at the same time I am confident that Mr. Lewis was ‘fully’ aware of the bonuses being handed out at Merrill. He is just ticked off that it made the press and everybody is criticizing them for it (and rightfully so). So Mr. Lewis is just playing the game of trying to make it all appear as if this is John Thain’s fault.

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This is all the evidence needed that the CEO’s of the large banks and financial institutions are only looking out for themselves, even as they ask for money from the tax payers!

They claim they are being ‘good stewards’ of our tax payer money. This is a lie!

The Financial Times is running this story tonight… hot off the presses:

Merrill Lynch took the unusual step of accelerating bonus payments by a month last year, doling out billions of dollars to employees just three days before the closing of its sale to Bank of America.

The timing is notable because the money was paid as Merrill’s losses were mounting and Ken Lewis, BofA’s chief executive, was seeking additional funds from the government’s troubled asset recovery programme to help close the deal.[...]

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