BofA Chief Lewis: U.S. Wanted Me To Keep Quiet About Merrill Deal

Bank of America Corp Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis testified under oath that U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pressured the bank to not discuss its plan to buy Merrill Lynch & Co, the Wall Street Journal said.

In a testimony before New York's attorney general Andrew Cuomo in February, Lewis told prosecutors that he believed Paulson and Bernanke were instructing him to keep silent about deepening financial difficulties at Merrill, which BofA acquired in January.

Read the whole story: Reuters

Comments

[lightningbolt]

02:34 PM on 04/24/2009

Of course they were told not to say anything. They didn't want people to know that they were going to use the money from Bank of America's depositors to cover Merrill's gambling losses. This is theft of taxpayer money and it is a crime. Of course they wanted to keep it secret. Remember, back then it was criminal Bush who was in charge.

[totaldisbelief]

08:51 AM on 04/24/2009

and the Game is called CYA (cover your A--) and it's played inside every other game that's being played and it's played by both sides at once. You see it all over the place and right now the epic CYA games are being played on Wall St. and in Washington D.C. but the game is going on 24/7 all over the world. So don't expect anyone to jump up and take responsibility for anything soon.

[PhilipTaylor]

08:33 PM on 04/23/2009

Why is Obama allowing Geithner to break Laws and ignore Oversight Reports!

Geithner and his entire TEAM will be investigated and prosecuted if his program goes forward!

Obama must appoint someone to bring this Renegade Activity under Control or Laws, Regulations, and Fairness to the TAXPAYER!

This could be as big a problem for Obama as the G1TM0 is for Bush!

[protagonia]

10:16 AM on 04/26/2009

You mean a big problem for "Barry"?

You DID mean to say "Barry", right?

[Carolab]

06:48 PM on 04/23/2009

Fed says DIDN'T advise BofA's Lewis on disclosure

1 hr 1 min ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – No one at the Federal Reserve advised Bank of America (BAC.N) chief Kenneth Lewis on any disclosure issues, Fed spokeswoman Michelle Smith said on Thursday.

"No one at the Federal Reserve advised Ken Lewis or Bank of America on any questions of disclosure," Smith said in an e-mail responding to a question. "It has long been the Federal Reserve's view that questions of this nature are best addressed by individual institutions and their legal counsel, as they are in a position to understand clearly their obligations and responsibilities."

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday that Lewis was pressured by senior federal officials Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke to accept a merger with troubled Merrill Lynch & Co or lose his job.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090423/bs_nm/us_bankofamerica_ceo_fed

[PhilipTaylor]

07:08 PM on 04/23/2009

Time for a Executives of TARP Banks to either STEP DOWN or be Relieved of Duty.

Time for several of the "So Called Healthy WS Banks" CEOs to be investigated for misuse of their Political Power and "Purposeful Insider Trading!"

[Carolab]

07:15 PM on 04/23/2009

Did you watch Barofsky's testimony? My God, Treasury is just totally ignoring COP.

http://budget.edgeboss.net/wmedia/budget/2009/jec090423.wvx

You should watch this interview with Janet Tavakoli on C-Span!

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=285329-1

[PhilipTaylor]

07:15 PM on 04/23/2009

We now have Pandit misleading Congress and Lewis misleading an Attorney General!

NO ethics on Wall Street Deals and now we are seeing that in testimony by the CEOs.

[Carolab]

07:16 PM on 04/23/2009

Utter lawlessness!

[Hallucinocynic]

08:48 AM on 04/24/2009

Yep. Lies compounding lies. Lewis is in the fight of his life. Hopefully, he will not win this one.

[eladora]

05:57 PM on 04/23/2009

What an American --to assist in lying to the public. I do not feel sorry for this guy. Not now--not ever.

[NURREDIN]

05:48 PM on 04/23/2009

Someone needs to ask what this had to do with the $3.6 BILLION paid out by Merrill Lynch three days BEFORE Ken Lewis took over on Jan 2nd. Did Paulson and Bernanke know about this payment and that it was going to be taken care of with taxpayer dollars? When Ken Lewis told Merrill CEO john Thain to hold off on the bonuses until they could be reviewed by the BOFA board on Jan 15th, why did Thain go ahead with the payments? We have the right to know WHO got the money and why they were in such a rush to pay it out before Obama took over. How many of the recipients were friends of Bernanke or Paulson or the Bush administration? Did the Bush administration make a sucker out of Lewis and leave him holding the bag so their buddies on Wall Street could get $3.6 BILLION before they left office? Lewis is guilty of keeping his mouth shut,but he should have told immediately when the Bush administration tried to shake him down,and pay off the Merrill payouts with TARP funds. We now know that Bernanke and Paulson told Lewis he would be replaced if he didn't do the deal. WHO got the $3.6 BILLION that noone will fess up about?

[Carolab]

06:51 PM on 04/23/2009

Kucinich is working on it.

SEC tells Kucinich it is checking into Bank of America transparency on bonuses

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/123969804590320.xml&coll=2

[AngryOhioan]

05:31 PM on 04/23/2009

When is there going to be a real investigation into the Goldman Sachs mafia? Are they completely above the law?

[Freenation]

04:47 PM on 04/23/2009

Still all the CEO's who are directly or indirectly responsible for this fiasco should LET GO....

[GerryS]

02:46 PM on 04/23/2009

From Reuters- "The newspaper quoted Paulson's spokeswoman as saying Paulson repeatedly told Lewis that "the U.S. government was committed to ensuring that no systemically important financial institution would fail."

not on his watch anyway-----

[loki]

02:44 PM on 04/23/2009

thats understandable. Look who he is talking about , Bernanke and Paulson. Criminals with to much power. But he cant blame their actions on the whole US. This was a good old boy deal, and he needs to take his lumps with his sugar. He has received billions in tax money for sugar, now he needs to be honest and take his lumps..

[redfrog]

02:03 PM on 04/23/2009

The current administration and congress telegraphed their intention to look at the banking industry's recent credit card rate increases into the realm of usury. B of A sent out a mass mailing that required their credit card holders to formally refuse the rate increase by the end of this month. This meant you could retain your current rate, but inactivate the card unless any activity other than payments showed up. In that case, the usurious rate became immediately effective. It is too damn late for an investigation to actually do anything substantial to rein in these banks' credit card practices unless they roll back time to include these changes that were forced by the banks onto their customers. Ken Lewis is only one of the vultures and this administration and this congress have either been willing participants or unwitting dolts in these latest activities. We all have laundry smarter than this, so I am wondering just what and where the payoffs are. Oh, and scr*w Republicans and blue-dog Democrats for all their help in this mess. Pretty angry here.

[PeterFirestein]

01:44 PM on 04/23/2009

Did Chairman Bernanke and Secretary Paulson maneuver Bank of America shareholders into taking an enormous hit for the financial system by buying Merrill? Or is Lewis simply trying to save his job, apparently in play at a shareholders' meeting next week, by saying the dog ate his homework--that he was dissuaded by the government from being transparent about material information at Merrill? Opinions on Lewis notwithstanding, it could be true. If Bernanke and Paulson did inhibit transparency, did they consider there were overriding concerns? Probably. Lewis would not be in the hot water in which he finds himself today were it not for the opacity of the last days of Merrill. If his claims about Bernanke and Paulson are true, the public certainly deserves to know. If they're not true, then Lewis is demonstrating a willingness to manipulate the public dialogue about the government's essential action in addressing the crisis for his own personal advantage. If that's the case, his actions are unconscionable and firing should be just the start of his problems.

[AngryOhioan]

05:36 PM on 04/23/2009

He testified under oath. If he is lying where are the angry denials by Paulson and Bernanke? These stories undermine the confidence in the treasury and Fed. If they are fabrications where is the forceful response?

[bluguy8]

01:32 PM on 04/23/2009

Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson did something illegal. shocking --lol, But why am I not surprised--their Bush people. They should both be arrested. And where is Paulson anyway--he stole the money and ran away.

[twoopeneyes]

01:10 PM on 04/23/2009

Bank of America Corp Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis testified under oath that U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pressured the bank to not discuss its plan to buy Merrill Lynch & Co, the Wall Street Journal said.

***********

Imagine that, Bush 's Treasury Secretary. Huh!! Who'd have thunk it?

[NevaforLeadership]

12:10 PM on 04/23/2009

Outrageous piece of information.

Lewis not should but most go.