One of the principles of a good lawyer is you don’t ask a question of a witness unless you already know the answer.
NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo released to the SEC details of his questioning of Bank of America Kenneth Lewis. What has become clear is that as BofA was becoming aware of how much money Merrill Lynch was losing, they wanted to back out of the deal.
Then Secretary of Treasury Henry (“Hank”) Paulson and current Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke threatened Lewis that the entire management of BofA would be fired if he didn’t complete the merger and conceal the financial mess Merrill Lynch was in from Bank of America’s shareholders. Paulson and Bernanke were in clear violation of US Securities law, according to the former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt and other industry experts according to the Bloomberg News Story.