Federal Judge Jed S. Rakoff rejected the $33 million settlement that the Securities and Exchange Commission accepted from Bank of America over the $3.6 billion in bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch employees. BoA, which acquired Merrill, knew Merill was about to post $9 billion in fourth quarter losses yet went ahead with the bonuses; Rakoff found that BoA "materially lied" to shareholders about the losses. more ›