By now many of you have heard that Bank of America made a settlement with the SEC for $33 million regarding the questionable bonuses paid to the Merrill Lynch employees and Bank of America did not disclose that they were going to do so and misled share holders when presenting the Merrill Lynch deal. US District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan Tuesday said he is not approving the Bank of America $33 million dollar SEC settlement and is questioning the SEC’s investigation or lack of investigation into the Bank of America allegations regarding misleading their shareholders. US District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan also has requested a detailed statement from the SEC regarding the SEC investigation by September 9 to further understand the matter. The SEC investigation and charges against Bank of America stem from activities in late 2008 when Bank of America was working to purchase Merrill Lynch and had told share holders in a proxy statement that Merrill Lunch had agreed not to pay year end bonuses before deal closed. The Bank of America and Merrill Lynch records show that Merrill Lynch paid $3.6 billion in year end bonuses just before deal closed, and Bank of America paid another $5.8billion in bonuses to Merrill Lynch employees after deal closed despite a record annual losses at Merrill Lynch. I am sure the TARP monies given to Bank of America went a long way toward helping them in their ability to pay these excessive bonuses to the Merrill Lynch employees. The real issue is the lack of information regarding these bonuses shared with the share holders, and the fact that the proxy saying no bonuses would be paid until deal closed.

The Bank of America executives who made the misleading statements regarding the bonuses to the Merrill Lynch executives to share holders told SEC, they did so based on advice from their lawyer.
US District Judge Jed Rakoff said Bank of America executives statements that they relied solely on counsel have no weight whatsoever. US District Judge Jed Rakoff also is wondering if he will find the lawyers that made the decision to create a false proxy that misled shareholders regarding the Bank of America and Merrill Lunch deal should be held legally responsible as well.

US District Judge Jed Rakoff is not very pleased with the SEC’s dealings with the Bank of America investigation and is wondering why the SEC did not seek a waiver to further investigate Bank of America’s attorney client information and privileges.

Am I the only one wondering why Bank of America who we gave so much TARP monies to is giving money away to Merrill Lynch executives for any reasons when Merrill Lynch had a year of record losses. I am sure Bank of America wanted to purchase Merrill Lynch evidenced by the actions they took and the fact that they paid huge bonuses to Merrill Lynch employees and withheld the information from share holders that they were doing so in their proxy. Don’t you wonder why a bank who needs billions in TARP monies thinks it is ok to pay out billion in non disclosed bonuses in this economy, when they have not even paid back the TARP monies they borrowed for their own bail out yet.