The Looting Continues--Merrill Lynch and Bank of America $3.6 BILLION TO EXECS-ILLEGALLY + SECRETLY

 

Top Four Merrill Bonus Recipients Got $121 Million/TOTAL IS $3.6 BILLION

 

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Merrill Lynch & Co.’s top four bonus recipients received a combined $121 million just before the firm was acquired by Bank of America Corp., according to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

In all, Merrill “secretly and prematurely” awarded $3.6 billion in bonuses, with Bank of America’s “apparent complicity,” Cuomo said in a Feb. 10 letter to Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads the House Committee on Financial Services. The letter was made public today as chief executives from the eight largest U.S. banks face off against lawmakers at a committee hearing in Washington.

Cuomo, a Democrat, has been examining whether Merrill broke securities laws when it paid the bonuses. He also is cooperating with Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky in a federal probe of executive pay at banks that got money from the U.S. Treasury’s Troubled Assets Relief Program.

“One disturbing question that must be answered is whether Merrill Lynch and Bank of America timed the bonuses in such a way as to force taxpayers to pay for them through the deal funding,” Cuomo said in the letter.

‘Gigantic Bonuses’

Cuomo, who has subpoenaed the testimony of former Merrill Lynch Chief Executive Officer John Thain and Bank of America Chief Administrative Officer J. Steele Alphin, said in the letter he would require top officials to answer the question. He said he plans to seek the testimony of other top executives at the firms.

Cuomo said the $3.6 billion in bonuses were distributed to “a small number of individuals.” He said Merrill “chose to make millionaires out of a select group of 700 employees,” and that an even smaller group was awarded “gigantic bonuses.”

After the top four recipients received $121 million, the next four received a combined $62 million, he said, and the next six a combined $66 million. He didn’t identify the recipients.

Overall, the top 149 people who got bonuses received a combined $858 million, according to Cuomo’s letter, and 696 people got bonuses of $1 million or more.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=home&sid=aRIPAVPZXNxM

 

[I keep using the word "looting" and it is absolutely accurate.  They stole BILLIONS from the citizens of the USA.  And no one is arrested.  And they have millions to lawyer forever.  The looting continues to be disclosed.]