Word: cuomo
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...year. Lewis, 62, said it was his decision to leave, but no one could miss the huge legal dustup swirling around him over the bank's deal late last year to buy Merrill Lynch. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo have been investigating whether Lewis misled shareholders to gain approval of that acquisition. He could soon face charges in those probes. (See the top 10 crooked CEOs...
...Even if Lewis escapes charges in the SEC case, he will still have to dodge New York attorney general Cuomo, who is also reportedly weighing charges against chief financial officer Joe Price over the Merrill bonuses and other issues surrounding the combination of the two banks. Neither Lewis nor Price could be reached for comment, though a Bank of America spokesman recently provided this statement to the Wall Street Journal: "We will continue to cooperate with the Attorney General's office as we maintain that there is no basis for charges against either the company or individual members...
...Those conflicting statements could be part of any charges brought by Cuomo, who would also likely look to prove that Bank of America played more of a key role in determining Merrill's year-end pay than its executives have let on. One possible bit of evidence: according to documents drawn up at the time of the acquisition, Merrill Lynch agreed that 40% of the bonuses it paid would be determined "by [Merrill] in consultation with [Bank of America...
...York's Cuomo does have the authority to bring criminal cases involving securities violations under the Martin Act, which gives the attorney general of New York the power to prosecute financial fraud. And it is not unheard of for executives to go to jail for lying on a proxy statement. In the 1970s, in a famous Wall Street fraud case, the chief executive of National Student Marketing was sentenced to 18 months in jail for lying about the finances of a company National Student Marketing was acquiring. Yet Cuomo has typically stuck to bringing civil charges against executives and companies...
...Cuomo will have a higher bar to clear if he's looking for wrongdoing outside the proxy statements. In general securities-fraud cases, it must be proven that executives of a company knew that a piece of information was material and created a scheme to make sure shareholders didn't find out about it. Certainly if Lewis or others were found guilty of that they would face stiff penalties. What's more, judges typically are more likely to ban, at least temporarily, executives of financial-services companies who are found in violation of securities-fraud laws because it is considered...