Another day, another settlement for reigning Worst Company In America runner-up Bank of America. This time, BofA has agreed to pay $315 to plaintiffs in a class-action suit over mortgage-backed investments sold by Merrill Lynch, the once-great financial institution that BofA swooped in to save when it collapsed in 2008. [More]
Bank Of America Settles For $315 Million Over Bad Merrill Lynch Investments
By December 6, 2011
Judge In Bank Of America Case Calls Settlement "Half-Baked Justice"
By February 22, 2010
A U.S. District Court Judge signed off on the $150 million settlement between Bank of America Corp. and the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations of making misleading statements during BofA’s purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co., but he wasn’t exactly happy about doing it. [More]
Ex-Merrill Lynch Boss John Thain Is A CEO Again
By February 8, 2010
After successfully redecorating his office, merging Merrill Lynch with Bank of America, and then getting fired — John Thain is once again a CEO. This time he’ll be heading up a recently-bankrupt commercial and consumer finance company, CIT. [More]
Oh Snap: NY AG Sues EX-Bank Of America CEO For Fraud
By February 5, 2010
Andrew Cuomo has announced a lawsuit against Bank of America’s former CEO Kenneth D. Lewis, its former CFO Joseph L. Price, and the company itself, for “duping shareholders and the federal government in order to complete a merger with Merrill Lynch.” Uh oh! [More]
Ex-Merrill Lynch CEO: Whoops, I Should Have Gone To IKEA
By September 19, 2009
Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain is famous for, among other things, spending $1.2 million to redecorate his office as the company was going down in flames. For some reason, Thain’s shopping spree of $87,000 area rugs, a $18,000 desk, and a $35,000 chest of drawers didn’t go over well.
Bank Of America Board Members Subpoenaed
By September 18, 2009
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office is gathering information in order to file fraud charges against some BoA executives over what they knew, and what they hid, when they acquired Merrill Lynch & Co. a year ago. Earlier this week, his office subpoenaed 5 board members to find out “what they knew regarding the mounting losses and bonus payments at Merrill before the deal closed on Jan. 1 and what role they played in deciding whether to disclose that information to shareholders,” according to the Associated Press.
Judge: BoA SEC Deal Violates "Most Elementary Notions Of Justice And Morality"
By September 14, 2009
Judge Jed Rakoff, our favorite crusading curmudgeon of the court, is at it again. And once again, he’s turned his ire to the backroom deal that Bank of America tried to cut with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle a complaint about outsize bonuses paid at Merrill Lynch before BofA took it over last year. The $33 million settlement, Rakoff wrote in his decision, “does not comport with the most elementary notions of justice and morality.”
Judge To BoA: "I'm Glad You Think $91,000 Is Not A Lot Of Money"
By August 11, 2009
Recently, the SEC settled with Bank of America over charges that the company mislead its investors about the $3.6 billion in bonuses paid by Merrill as the brokerage was being taken over. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, however, isn’t buying it. He’s refusing to approve the settlement until it can be shown that the $33 million Bank of America agreed to pay is adequate. That’s nice, but he best part is that the judge is being hilariously sarcastic during the hearings.
Financial Advertising Through The Years
By August 11, 2009
Slate has put together a sarcastic look at financial-type commercials through the years. We like the one with Samuel L. Jackson and the centaur.
NY AG: Banks Paid Bonuses That Were Substantially Greater Than The Banks' Net Income
By July 31, 2009
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s report on the bonus structures of the banking industry is out and — oh my— it’s damning. The AG says that 3 banks, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JP. Morgan Chase, paid out bonuses that ” were substantially greater than the banks’ net income.”
Frontline Examines The Bank Of America/ Merrill Lynch Merger
By June 17, 2009
The merger between Merrill Lynch and Bank of America was sold to us as a marriage made in heaven that would save the financial system. It wasn’t, and it didn’t. Now Frontline takes a closer look at the now-infamous debacle that cost tax payers billions — and CEO Ken Lewis his chairmanship.
Worst Company In America: FINAL FOUR Comcast VS Bank Of America
By May 5, 2009
A big cable company vs a big bank. A repeat of our final match-up of 2008. Last year Countrywide (now part of Bank of America) prevailed. Which one will you choose?
Bank Of America CEO: The Bush Administration Made Me Do It!
By April 24, 2009
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office is at it again. They’ve been investigating the circumstances that led to the merger of Bank of America and Merrill Lynch and the subsequent bonus payments to executives. In a letter to Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Cuomo quotes Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis as saying that former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson threatened him with removal from his position and mass firing of the board and senior management if he didn’t allow the merger to go through.
Worst Company In America: Starbucks VS Bank of America
By April 7, 2009
Expensive coffee that “tastes burnt”? Or the owners of Merrill Lynch and Countrywide?
Merrill Lynch Bonus Recipients May Be Revealed Next Week
By March 13, 2009
Well, it looks like the whole Merrill Lynch bonus scandal may have a Scooby Doo ending — with a judge unmasking the executives by the end of next week.
B of A Heiress Says Bank Is "Repulsive", Run By "Idiots"
By February 25, 2009
Virginia Hammerness, the 75-year-old heiress to A.P. Giannini’s family fortune and a significant stockholder in Bank of America, the bank her grandfather founded in San Francisco in 1904, has harsh words for the people in charge.
Merrill Lynch CEO: "Nothing Happened In The World Or The Economy" That Would Justify Suspending Bonuses
By February 23, 2009
You know how Merrill Lynch recently lost $15 billion? Remember how we’re in a unbelievably huge global financial crisis that threatens to unravel the fabric of our economy? John Thain says that’s no reason not to pay billions of dollars in bonuses.
Thain's $35,000 Commode On Legs Actually Chest Of Drawers
By January 23, 2009
Regarding the $35,000 “commode on legs” ex-Merrill-Lynch CEO John Thain bought for his office, commenter VikramJaffe informs me that it is not as I theorized, a claw-footed toilet, but rather a chest of drawers on legs introduced by the French in the early 18th century. Too bad no one informed me of the distinction before I took a crap in it.
