The day that we've all been looking forward to with gleeful anticipation has come. The Securities & Exchange Commission has charged Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC), that outhouse of commerce, with securities fraud.Unfortunately, the charges aren't as wide-ranging as they should be, but they're still substantial. The SEC alleges that the company made "false and misleading statements" in the joint proxy statement it filed in connection with the Merrill Lynch merger.
In that proxy statement, the lawsuit filed in a Manhattan federal court alleges, Bank of America said that Merrill agreed not to pay year-end performance bonuses with BofA's permission. The problem? That just wasn't true.
Marshall Front of Front Barnett Associates told Reuters that it's "another chink" in CEO Ken Lewis' armor, but added that "This is not something that I would worry about as an investor. Ken Lewis should worry about it, but not an investor."
Why would Ken "What's a Guy Got to Do to Get Fired Around Here?" Lewis worry about anything? He took one of the most powerful banks in the world and turned it into a welfare queen, got paid for it, got bonuses, and kept his job. I seriously doubt any silly little securities fraud lawsuit is going to bother him. It looks like Ken Lewis will join Cher and cockroaches as the sole survivors of the nuclear holocaust.
And here's the best part: Bank of America settled the lawsuit for a measly $33 million -- a mere 0.22% of the $15 billion in bailout money that the company has received. Moral of story: Do a lousy deal, close it with the help of taxpayer money, get more taxpayer money, pay bonuses, get more taxpayer money, and then admit to lying about the whole thing, and give back 1/5th of 1% of the bailout money you got. This is what capitalism has been reduced to?
Is anyone else watching this?
Why isn't Bank of America updating its shareholders on CEO situation?
Before the bell: Futures sharply lower on Dubai's debt problems
Will Rich Ross really have a positive impact on Disney's movie operations?
