SEC expands charges against BofA

[louis-t]

Source: Associated Press

The SEC and Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America are scheduled to go to trial on March 1. The SEC previously accused Bank of America of failing to disclose to shareholders payment of the bonuses to Merrill employees after Merrill was acquired a year ago by the bank. Last September, the judge threw out a proposed $33 million settlement of those charges and ordered a trial. He rebuked the SEC for not pursuing charges against individual executives of Bank of America — a course the SEC said Monday it wouldn't pursue.

The SEC said Monday it was seeking to charge the biggest U.S. bank with failing to disclose "extraordinary financial losses" at Merrill in the two months preceding the shareholders' Dec. 5, 2008, vote approving the takeover of the storied Wall Street brokerage house.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100111/ap_on_bi_ge/us_sec_bank_of_america

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No 'executives' were 'responsible', then who, or what, was?

[DebbieCDC]

1. I want to see BoA go down in flames and its execs in handcuffs doing a perp walk

I hate those SOBs

[louis-t]

2. I can't wait to pay off my credit cards

and tell them to fuck right off.

[Warpy]

3. Ken Lewis really screwed that company up

and should be in the pantheon of incredibly bad CEOs with Kennyboy Lay.

[Socal31]

4. So they go down in flames and we hand them more $$$$$ to bail them out?

No thanks.

[jsamuel]

5. the SEC wanted to punish the shareholders for what the executives did that hurt the shareholders

In other words, the SEC wants to punish the victim.

[boppers]

6. No evidence of individual wrongdoing, perhaps?

If they couldn't find any one person (or several) who wrote an email saying "don't disclose this", it's likely a matter of not being able to prove that specific executives should be charged... instead, it's the business entity itself, and a culture which didn't inform the shareholders.

So, how does one punish a business culture?