Did Paulson and Bernanke Commit Securities Fraud?
Was Bank of America Entrapped?
Peter J. Henning, a professor at Wayne State Law School, occasionally writes as a guest blogger for the Deal Professor. Mr. Henning specializes in issues related to white-collar crime and is a former editor of the White Collar Crime Law Prof Blog.
Bank of America’s chief executive, Kenneth D. Lewis. has been on the hot seat since mid-January when the bank reported large losses at Merrill Lynch that it apparently knew about prior to the merger of the companies. A slew of lawsuits have been filed accusing Mr. Lewis and Bank of America of committing securities fraud for not disclosing the losses before shareholders voted on the merger and then withholding the information until well after the merger closed. Now, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York has revealed that Mr. Lewis said the Treasury secretary at the time, Henry M. Paulson Jr., and the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, put pressure on him to complete the Merrill merger while keeping …