BofAs purchase of Merrill Lynch under criminal investigation by the Feds

BOAs purchase of Merrill Lynch under criminal investigation by the Feds
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/09/19/2009-09-19_bofa_under_feds_scope.html#ixzz0RYiGCzQl
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The probe is being conducted by the Department of Justice and the FBI and has been underway for six months, according to a report Friday by the Charlotte Observer; BofA's headquarters is in Charlotte.

A BofA spokesman declined to confirm the report. He told Reuters the bank has provided thousands of documents to various government agencies and added that there was "no basis for charges against the company or individuals on the management team."

A federal criminal probe would be a new wrinkle in a yearlong wave of legal problems for the nation's largest bank.

Bank of America has been subject to a wave of civil litigation since it closed on its $29 billion purchase of Merrill on Jan. 1.

It was later revealed that Merrill, with the knowledge of BofA execs, paid Merrill employees $3.6 billion in bonuses just before the deal closed, even though the bank had lost $27.6 billion that year.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/09/19/2009-09-19_bofa_under_feds_scope.html#ixzz0RYiYg7OB
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Can't wait to see Ken Lewis heading for prison in handcuffs.

Edit subject.

Lewis screwed the pooch with that particular stunt and sent BoA nearly into bankruptcy. The Merrill deal on top of the Countrywide purchase overextended the bank to a ridiculous extent.

The buyouts of Countrywide by BofA, Golden West by Wachovia, and Washington Mutual by JPMC were all counterproductive.

They should have all been allowed to go into bankruptcy and fail like IndyMac. It would have bankrupted the FDIC, which would have had to have been rescued by Treasury, but that would have been a good thing.

Instead, the west coast and sunbelt mortgage sleaze was hidden and continued to infect the financial system.

in propping Countrywide up that they got it for a bargain basement sales price. They could have survived that one, although I wasn't shy about telling the muckety muck I knew that it was a boneheaded move.

It was the purchase of Merrill with all their toxic paper that has nearly broken them.

...dishonest, fucking, incompetent assholes.

They tried to cheat me over the years on an insurance impound account for homeowners insurance. I asked for a copy of the policy which specifically named me, the property, etc. I got some bullshit certificate of insurance and I immediately smelled a rat. I sued and the end result was that assholes has to pony up and pay back nearly $70,000.00 in insurance premiums which they had collected over the years when in fact they had NEVER purchased insurance for my benefit in any manner.

When I refused to pay the premiums through the impound, they threatened to foreclose on my home and other bullshit. When I requested a copy of the check which they issued for my policy, the fuckers sent me a copy of a check for $2-million to an insurance company and alleged that my payment was contained in the funds in that check.

Best of all? They sent a print out which allegedly evidenced that I was covered on some huge policy...they forged my name to the bottom of the listing they sent ~~ claiming it was a legit computer print out.

Fuck them ~~ they NEED to go down big time.

made them pay. :hi:

...they paid. They had some smarmy bullshit VP playing games with me and the letters would have burned their butts at a jury trial. I particularly liked the copy of the huge check as evidence that they had paid premiums for my benefit. So they ponied back all the money I had paid.

It was mega tasty giving them the fucking they had intended for me! :evilgrin:

I can just imagine :D

I wouldn't have been savy enough to realize I was being taken to the cleaners under the same circumstances.

...after a broken water pipe in a wall and some damages to my house. I wanted a copy of the policy itself so that I could understand the exact coverage ~~ I got bullshit summaries and certificates and BS about why would I need this since the problem was completely covered except for the deductible which I needed to pay.

Since I am a lawyer, I like to go to source documents, read them, and draw my own conclusions on the legal aspects contained. So...I kept pushing and pushing for a copy of the ACTUAL policy. When I got the bullshit copy of the check and the alleged computer print-out, the entire matter did not pass the smell test.

On the certificate of insurance, they went so far to name a company and give a policy number. I, of course, called the company and got the claims department and inquired about the policy because I wanted a copy. Well, guess what...there was no such policy. I then wrote a certified letter to the company and confirmed what they said. That is when I drafted the lawsuit. End of my discussing the matter with the BofA.

I would suggest that everyone does the same with any lending institution through which they pay an impound for insurance and/or property taxes. Might as well get some money back from some of those banks who have cheated all of us in one way or another.

:hi:

Would this also be known as "escrow"? On my last home refinance, I did away with all of that when I realized that it was a means to charge interest on monies never loaned. Some things that are legal shouldn't be.

This week, PBS replayed the Frontline on Bernie Madoff...a show that should make anyone's blood boil to see not just the arrogance of the wheeler-dealers but the complete ineptness and duplicity of the "authorities". Thune was just as bad as Madoff in running his company into the ground and bailing out at the last minute. From what I've read, you almost have to have some sympathy for BOA...they really didn't know how screwed up ML was after being forced into a shotgun marriage with them by Hank Paulsen.

It's taken time...part of it to regain some financial stability, part of it the long, tedious process of digging through the mountains of paper to unravel what really went on. A vise is gonna close on many of the worst robber barons between federal prosecution on one side and civil litigation on the other. Justice takes time and I'm glad to see the wheels are still turning.

Cheers...

:hi:

these criminals would end up in prison.

A well organized and elaborate syndiate that is not easy to look into. Many had two or six or fifty sets of books, others played with derivitives that become one big jumble of numbers and still others were just pocketing money outright. You just can't play bank inspector and expect to crack this nut overnight. So much of these games were intermixed with "regular" and legitimate business...a big reason so many innocent people went down that really has made things a bigger mess. My accountant would constantly tell me about all sorts of financial games that were going on out there. They weren't secret, and as long as people were making money (15-20%) no one was going to say a peep. The game was you could invest in the "safe" security and get only 5% or you could walk into the backroom and talk in hushed tones about getting 15%...just make sure you bring 50 or 100k to deal in.

Justice is coming.