Bailout Sleuth:
Bank of America Corp. executives considering the company's purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co. last year admitted to one another that the deal meant "screw the shareholders" and that it was critical they not create an email trail that might come back to haunt them.
The exchanges were among emails and other documents the bank turned over to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform this week in an effort to answer questions about the controversial deal.
The committee, along with the attorney general of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission, is investigating whether Bank of America misled shareholders when it neglected to tell them that it had promised to pay Merrill executives as much as $5.8 billion in bonuses once the deal was approved.
A federal judge in New York recently refused to approve a $33 million settlement between the bank and the SEC over the issue, saying that the former had failed to identify the executives responsible for the decision to omit information about the bonuses from the proxy material. In court, the bank claimed that it had acted on its attorneys' advice, but refused to provide details, citing attorney-client privilege.
Rep. Adolphus Towns, chairman of the oversight committee, told the bank earlier this month that it would not be permitted to use such a defense before congress.
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