Cuomo To Judge: Don't Let BOA Keep Bonus Info Secret

[babylonsister]

Cuomo asks court to deny Bank of America request
Fri Mar 6, 2009 3:33pm EST


NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo urged a state judge on Friday to reject Bank of America Corp's (BAC.N) attempt to keep confidential a wide range of testimony about $3.6 billion of bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch & Co employees.

Bank of America wants to expand a confidentiality order on testimony by former Merrill Chief Executive John Thain to cover all witnesses who testify under subpoena in the bonus probe, Cuomo said in a Friday letter to Justice Bernard Fried of the state supreme court in Manhattan.

This would include Gregory Fleming, a former Merrill executive whom Cuomo said testified on Thursday and who entered a confidentiality agreement with his office. Fleming had been expected to oversee investment banking at Bank of America but left in January for a position at Yale University.

Cuomo said the bank's request was part of its "continued efforts to stymie" the probe, and should be rejected.

Merrill awarded bonuses just days before Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America on January 1 completed its acquisition of the Wall Street investment bank and brokerage.

Cuomo is investigating whether the bonuses violated securities laws, and his office subpoenaed seven Merrill executives who got tens of millions of dollars of compensation in 2008, a person familiar with the probe said on Wednesday.

more...

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE52560H20090306