I haven't seen this posted - I will delete if it is a duplicate.
As detailed a few days ago in Uncle Bob's diary, "Merrill Lynch accelerated its normal time schedule for awarding bonuses and distributed $ 4 billion dollars on Dec 29, just 3 days before its takeover by Bank of America. At the same time Merrill posted $15 billion in losses for the fourth quarter. The total compensation for Merrill Lynch employees in 2008 was $15 billion."
The AP reported earlier today that New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo, "issued subpoenas to former Merrill Lynch chief executive John Thain and Bank of America's chief administrative officer, J. Steele Alphin, amid an investigation into bonuses Merrill paid executives just before being sold to Bank of America."
According to the AP story,
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's investigation will center on trying to determine why the timetable for paying the bonuses was moved up to December from its normal period in January; who knew about the bonuses; and how Merrill could justify spending billions of dollars on bonuses knowing its was on the brink of reporting a multibillion loss for the quarter.
Bank of America official Scott Silvestri said, "John Thain and the Merrill Lynch compensation committee made the decision on the amount and timing of year-end compensation at Merrill Lynch. We had no legal right to challenge it." Silvestri also indicated that "the bank is cooperating with authorities."
In addition, the AP article said that Cuomo will "investigate executive compensation for all institutions that have received federal funds as part of a $700 billion investment program run by the Treasury Department."
This is not much of a diary, but I think more than a few people will be glad to know that someone in a position of authority is asking these questions.
It's about time.