Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Ken Lewis, CEo of Bank of America
If the AIG bonuses produced angry street protests over $165 million, then what’s going to be the response to the latest revelation that Merrill Lynch doled out $3.6 billion to executives after the federal government propped up the teetering firm with $10 billion? Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) is incensed, having shot off a letter Monday afternoon to Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, Neel Kashkari, Interim Assistant Director of Financial Stability at the Treasury Department, and Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America, requesting documents related to communications on Merrill Lynch compensation packages.
Kucinich wants to know what officials from the Bush and Obama administrations knew about the bonuses, and what role, if any, BofA played in the payments as it bought out the Wall Street investment firm that lost $15 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008 alone. In addition to the $10 billion in taxpayer dollars that went to Merrill Lynch, BofA got $25 billion from the federal bailout of the financial industry.
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper already has begun his own investigation into the Merrill Lynch bonuses, while New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been looking into bonuses at BofA and other institutions.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Kucinich to Probe $3.6 Billion in Merrill Lynch Bonuses (by Stephen C. Webster, Raw Story)
Merrill Lynch Probe Heats Up (Triangle Business Journal)
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