Now that Bank of America has agreed to a $150 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed a lawsuit against the bank and its former CEO and CFO, accusing it of misleading the government and investors in its purchase of Merrill Lynch. Cuomo said, "This merger is a classic example of how the actions of our nation’s largest financial institutions led to the near-collapse of our financial system. Bank of America, through its top management, engaged in a concerted effort to deceive shareholders and American taxpayers at large..." more ›

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is continuing to investigate Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch—and he's not very happy with BoA's uncooperative, client-lawyer confidentiality stance! His office sent a letter (PDF) saying that they found four instances where the company failed to disclose "material non-public information to shareholders" (such as Merrill's $9 billion 4th quarter losses, $3.6 billion accelerated bonus payments), "The facts of the cascading losses and bonus payments -- and the facts of Bank of America's senior executives' knowledge of these events -- are straightforward. However ... the decision-making process by which Bank of America and its executives decided not to disclose these material facts to Bank of America's shareholders has been hidden from our investigation by Bank of America's repeated invocation of the attorney-client privilege." Additionally, there are questions surrounding the dismissal of BoA's general counsel: "[Timothy] Mayopoulos was let go the day the bank informed its board that Merrill was bleeding money at an unexpected pace," just days after he discussed the "mounting losses at Merrill Lynch, which were not disclosed to shareholders before the deal closed" with BoA's CFO. Yeah, that's not fishy at all! more ›