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BofA Responds To SEC By Not Responding To Pretty Much Anything
Bank of America, suddenly left out in the cold, without the gentle hand of the SEC to part an angry sea of taxpayers, has filed its first response to the SEC since it found itself at odds with the regulator, courtesy of Judge Rakoff. Well, a response is a loose definition for 8 pages filled with "No responses."
Amusingly, Ken Lewis' bank continues to insist on the line of defense that highlights external reports which allegedly uncovered BofA's vicious bonus scam way ahead of anyone.
Bank of America denies the remaining allegations contained in paragraph 2 and states that Bank of America and Merrill Lynch publicly disclosed, as part of the Proxy Statement and elsewhere, that Merrill Lynch was continuing to accrue compensation and benefits expenses in 2008 at a rate similar to 2007 and that numerous media outlets, in newspapers, on television, and over the internet, reported that Merrill Lynch was expected to pay multi-billions of dollars in year-end incentive compensation for 2008.
The argument goes that any sensible investor in the firm should have taken these at face value when making a determine opinion on whether to back the firm in its acquisition of a then-bankrupt Merrill Lynch, while paying its employees billions in bonuses. And after all, what use are Proxy documents and 8-K's: there are Yahoo Message boards that discuss everything and anything ever needed. Something tells us an already incensed Jef Rakoff is not going to be too hot with this argument. Well, unless Mary Schapiro decides to give every piece of information ever published the implicit blessing of the SEC as a regulatory mandated output. Alas, that would also obviate the need for the SEC's $900 million budget.
Without the SEC working on its behalf, BofA seems to have its work pretty much cut out for it. Hopefully it will take a look at the Cleary invoice for this peace of work, and set the check aside alongside the unfiled Merrill bonus disclosure statement in the very bottom drawer, proceeding to forget all about it. Plus, pretty soon they will need all the money they can get.
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Long legal firms...
speaking of banks, check this out. ripped it from Dealbreaker
http://www.bloomberg30.com/id45.html
only 11K??
GS always gets a pass. Oh, but they are not really a bank.
They recommend Peoples United Bank at the end? Wtf kind of shady site is this?
Let's hang these fuckers.
Isn't the point here that the SEC is in the wrong to even start this suit? Clearly BAC was going to pay bonuses... so shouldn't BAC be the ones suing the SEC for even bringing this suit in the first place?
I finished ending my personal business dealings with BofA this week after establishing my ACH payments with my new bank.
I felt very sad for the bank lady as she doled out the last globule remaining in my account. She is a good person working for a bank gone putrid.
When I told her I would like to empty the safe deposit box She remarked, you are closing everything? Yes.
A bad day for me, I like the people at the branch.
BAC to SEC: "Blow me."
Alan Grayson Kicks Fed Ass!
Alan Grayson HR1207 hearing "Has the Federal Reserve Ever Tried to Manipulate the Stock Market "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1h2c3Hkf7o&feature=player_embedded#t=185
No response.
Speaking of banks....one down so far today
What did you expect them to say? You are right Mr. Towns, and we are wrong! Please take this information and fire all our officers and directors and have them thrown in prison. You are right we are evil greedy people and we should be thrown in prison for life. Hell, throw our familys and ALL our employees in jail while you are at it. (350,000)
Who can we villify and demonize this week?
Perhaps some manners on this site is too much to ask for. Can we please have at least a pseudonym required? Oh yeah, I forgot, this is America and we dont need manners!
i've been long manners since march, but now i'm in cash. the fundamentals just arn't there. this has been a liquidity driven manners rally and these rich manners can't be maintained without top-line politeness growth.
Serenity Now, River Tam.
It did not go down the way the SEC described it in the complaint, but, they agreed to pay $33 million to make it go away. Well, obviously they would have paid $ 33 billion had the SEC asked.
First bank failure of the day - Georgian Bank in Atlanta:
http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2009/pr09177.html
$892M, whew.
Don't want to pay for Obamacare? Yeah that's a $25,000 penalty & up to 1 year imprisoned. http://is.gd/3FCQx
Owebama fries the skin off children for amusement.
"What did you expect them to say? You are right Mr. Towns, and we are wrong! Please take this information and fire all our officers and directors and have them thrown in prison. You are right we are evil greedy people and we should be thrown in prison for life. Hell, throw our familys and ALL our employees in jail while you are at it. (350,000)"
That would have been a nice start.
The Answer filed by B of A is a standard fare denial of allegations. The document is intended to put the various elements of the Complaint "at issue." Without it, the court would have to find there is no bona fide dispute between the parties.
Actually, most answers filed in similar litigation are far less detailed, and tend to deny Everything, both generally and specifically.
come on Mary show us your balls.
This is the best these 1250 a billable hour firms can do? What a frigging waste.
well said layne.
then again, they sure don't have much to work with do they, lol!
when your hand is so jammed in the cookie jar and you have crumbs all over your fingers.........
i still rather enjoyed the previous attempt to establish legal precedent on "law" that was contained in a bill that never passed the US Congress. Some of these people must have had marketing minors.
Great defense. At those hourly rates? Jezuz. Talk about scraping the barrel - it was disclosed "elsewhere." What you need to understand in thinking this through is that disclosures in the proxy and exhibits are your safety zone in a securities fraud case. If it's in there, you're home free. If anything, put it in there because who the hell reads it anyway?
If not, you got 'splaining to do, Lucy.
BofA Board Member, on the witness stand: "well, gosh I'll tell ya, honestly, we thought about putting all this silly disclosure stuff you guys get all worked up about, as if it is a legal requirement or something, but then we realized we didn't need to because all kinds of people were talking about different things we might do or pay, or losses we might incur, all over the damn tube and in those dawggone web sites and we thought by golly let's not beat a dead horse here. We thought if we of all people starting poking holes in the thing somebody might get the wrong impression and start making a fuss over things and queer the deal. Mr. Lewis assured us that the deal had been cleared at the highest levels, and had to go through if we wanted to stay on the Board, and then he sort of winked at us - I thought it was just a twitch but he did it several times all the way around the table - and so we voted to go ahead. I still don't see what's the big deal."