Bank of America

REIT stocks benefited mightily from Merrill Lynch's generosity earlier in the year, when the ML REIT team issued follow on equity offerings, followed by prompt upgrades to the stock, although not necessarily in that order. The bottom line - roughly 5% in underwriter fees on almost $20 billion worth of new equity issued. And while last week's REIT massively downsized IPOs were an indication that the top for REIT stocks has come, that has not prevented Ken Lewis' firm from continuing to profit handsomely from the next shoe to drop in real estate.

The analyst upgrade games continue, even as gullible investor lemmings jump off cliffs to chase price target revisions and capital offerings, compliments of conflicts of interest too numerous to mention.

Developing story: The trap is closing, Ken Lewis is sweating, Hank Paulson is evaluating one way ticket costs to non-extradition treaty countries.

It just never ends: Goldman puts a company on the Conviction Buy list and 3 days later the company issues either bonds or stocks. The most recent beneficiary of this highly ethical practice: Spirit Aerospace. This is a topic that has been beaten to death on Zero Hedge, so we will just present the facts.

The stuff just got serious folks. "The FBI involvement opens up the possibility of criminal charges, although the scope and possible outcome of the probe remain unclear."

In a developing story reported by the AP, Cuomo has allegedly subpoenaed five relevant Bank Of America directors who had presumably been briefed on actions taken by the bank in its Merrill merger prior to the public disclosure, and is seeking their sworn testimony.

As set forth above, we cannot simply accept Bank of America's officers' bald assertions that their decisions to keep each of these material events from Bank of America's shareholders were based on a full review of all the relevant information by their inside and outside counsel. The law is clear that Bank of America and its officers cannot assert an advice of counsel defense for their decisions, and at the same time persist in refusing to disclose the substance of the conversations with counsel. Accordingly, we request that Bank of America reconsider its decision to prevent this Office from adequately probing these crucial issues. We provide you with this final opportunity to reconsider. Otherwise, we will proceed with our charging decisions without giving credit to the advice of counsel defenses that Bank of America has not permitted us to test.

- From The Office Of NY Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo

Some serious fireworks go off as Clearly Gottlieb clutches at straws to make Lewis, from merely Patron Saint of Taxpayer Funded, No MAC Clause Invoking Acquisitions of Bankrupt Companies, into Saint Ken, Martyr of The Dispossed Investor.

"We are at this stage in our investigation in which we are making charging decisions with respect to Bank of America and its executives."

How poetic would it be if Madoff and Ken share a jailcell?

Update: All is now taken care of - BAC settles with the SEC for $33 million, less than an hour after the suit becomes public. And... it's gone. The market ramp can now continue with commercial interruptions from the Federal Reserve of the United States.

Apparently BAC screwed the pooch with misrepresenting the Merrill acquisition. Shocker. Will the SEC next pursue Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke for enforcing this material misrepresentation? Mozillo's legal bill is already being footed by taxpayers, can we at least get a twoofer special here please?

The glory of maintaining your own SPARC-core server headquarters at 65 Montgomery Street (or at least a first lien therein) can be yours for a mere $65 million, compliments of the Houdiniesque commercial real estate folken at Citi Commercial Mortgage Finance.The full mini prospectus can be found here for your enlightenment.

If you had to create a mortgage that was more toxic and more destructive than a subprime loan, you would have a very hard time creating that product. Yet leave it to creative finance to spawn a devilish product with the unique name of option ARMs.

The lately abnormally notorious Goldman Sachs received a little pat on the back today compliments of Bank Of America and its analyst Guy Moszkowski, who in a report published this morning announced his expectation of an "unexpected" Q2 surprise (quick, someone find the next big counterparty that Goldman shorted and also has several tens of billions in collateral exposure with the 85 Broad oracles) and also anticipates forecasts to rise. Maybe now that Goldman's fate allegedly is in the hands of a few good hackers, Guy may want to redo his hypothesis. But I digress.

Just when people were wondering why Bank Of Countrywide Lynch wasn't paying back the TARP, (well, that, and a several hundred billion in toxic assets) Reuters is reporting that the legal fees of Agent Orange, who was recently charged by the SEC with fraud and insider trading, will be paid for by TARP-for-life member BofA.

In the most recent example of taking from one pocket to pay another, Merrill and JPM underwrote 8.75 million shares at $20/share for Kilroy Realty Corp, a REIT that owns, operates, develops, and acquires Class-A suburban office and industrial real estate in bankrupt southern California.