Posted by RipRyness on 09/14/09 12:28 PM [Newer: Rep. Grayson] [Older: Coal Power - dead already?]

"The SEC and Bank of America had sought the judge's approval of a consent decree to resolve charges that the bank concealed an agreement to pay up to $5.8 billion in bonuses to Merrill executives."

"In effect, Judge Rakoff found, the settlement would force the victims of the alleged misstatements--Bank of America shareholders--to pay an additional $33 million." "It does not comport with the most elementary notions of justice and morality, in that it proposes that the shareholders who were the victims of the bank's alleged misconduct now pay the penalty for that misconduct," the judge wrote.

"The proposed settlement suggests a rather cynical relationship between the parties: the S.E.C. gets to claim that it is exposing wrongdoing on the part of the Bank of America in a high-profile merger; the bank’s management gets to claim that they have been coerced into an onerous settlement by overzealous regulators. And all this is done at the expense, not only of the shareholders, but also of the truth."