BoA: 'Grave and Irreparable Harm' if We Disclose Merrill Lynch Bonuses
By Susie Madrak Friday Mar 06, 2009 5:00pmI can barely read this through my empathetic tears:
March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp. will suffer “grave and irreparable harm” if Merrill Lynch & Co. employees paid $3.6 billion in bonuses just before the firm’s acquisition by the bank are publicly identified, its lawyers said.
Bank of America today filed documents in state court in Manhattan to intervene in a case brought by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to compel former Merrill Chief Executive Officer John Thain to testify about the bonus recipients.
“Neither the individual names nor the job titles bear any reasonable or relevant relationship” to Cuomo’s investigation, the firms argued in the documents. “Nor is there a reasonable or relevant reason to disclose such information to the general public.”
The information Cuomo seeks would provide a “road map” revealing which business lines the banks believe to be most valuable and enable competitors to poach the bank’s top talent, Bank of America argued in the court filing. Disclosure of the information would also cause “internal dissension and consternation,” pose security risks for the exposed bankers and their families, and cause employees to leave, according to the filings.
God, I hate that internal dissension and consternation! And of course, unless they disclose, no one will have a clue that the guy with the Hamptons beach house, private car and driver, gold Rolex and Park Avenue penthouse works on Wall Street. Why, people might even try to steal from them the same way they stole from us!
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yay!
When I saw this few days ago the first thing I thought after reading “grave and irreparable harm” was, if that isn't an admission of guilt to corruption then I don't know what is. If they feel that way then obviously they knew those who got it didn't deserve it.
Scums
Along with the Merrill bonuses the full story of what Paulson the Plunderer promised in the way of un lawful tax benefits to BoA when he convinced them to take Merrill.
Here is the WaPo story from November. A quiet $140 billion windfall.
Here is the latest from January.
Geithner talks about closing tax loopholes, this ones, section 382 was already closed by Congress in the 80s. He should get the $140 billion illegal giveaway back for the taxpayers.
Washington has sold out to Wall Street, here.
Here is my comment on AIG which is another heist in progess.
We were duped. Deregulation was the capitalistic way yo go. Fuck those Commies. We were told a free market would bring riches to ALL of us.
We are headed into socialism! I started out with eight or nine million. I'm down at least five. Our way is working if you give it another eight years.
Just say NO!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyl8c91qPbw
How convenient for The Federal Reserve. They loan "OUR" money to the banks at 0% interest and demand to keep secret which banks were lent to, then those very banks turn around and charge "US" 30% interest on the loans they make to "US" with "OUR!!!!" money!!!!
Hello??!! Is this mic on????
paulson belongs in a federal prison, and i don't give a rat's ass what timmy "tax cheat" says about anything.
Words that describe these crooks and where they ought to be that start with G:
Greed, Grubby, Gang, Gluttons, Gulag...
Guillotine
I repeat...
Gangsters???
Gelatin?
.
Ghosts
Gone (to hell in a hand-basket).
guano gobblers?
Goddess Forbid that Banking of America should suffer “grave and irreparable harm” while the rest of us are having such an easy time of it!
...at Baxter, who "mistakenly" allowed live avian flu virus out of their Biosafety Level 3 facilities.
http://www.naturalnews.com/025760.html
sush! thiers national security involved here!
What, the Grave and Irreparable Harm in us taxpayers finding out how these thieves pissed away our hard-earned money giving huge bonuses to the already-sickeningly-rich??? The Grave and Irreparable Harm in exposing the political hacks who let them get away with it?
BRING IT ON!!!! Let us select a stout tree and a long rope.
are they avoiding naming names of bonus recipients for tax evasion purposes !?
Man, I had the same thoughts when I read that article!
These guys lost BILLIONS. They HAVE NO talent.
Well, on second thought, they have a talent for shaking us down.
Hmmmmm. Maybe, if disclosing those bonuses would cause "grave and irreparable harm," they shouldn't have fucking given them in the first place and should take them back now. At this point I frankly hope that they go bankrupt and all of these clueless, incompetent "lords of the universe" end up panhandling on the street corners.
all of these right-wing, neo-con, money-grubbing conservatives are also Jeebus freaks. That being the case, I'm s'posing they'll have a lot of 'splainin' to do when they get to the Pearly Gates ...
and get their tickets straight to Hell.
I would bet these crooks will be in the car pool lane straight to Dante's Inferno. There will be no explanation.
LOL! When did BofA hire Karl Rove to devise strategy and Ari Fleischer as its press secretary?
What's a few billion between retirees? I'm going to youtube and watch some funny videos.
Um, is anyone investigating the possibility that the entire "financial services' industry is just one giant incestuous ponzi scheme?
A good report here.
If we paid our tax dollars to bail them out, we should take the money back from them as part of their severance packages. This crap about them being too valuable is non-sense. They are all expendable. Fire their worthless asses for running the company into the ground.
Be sure to read Alice X's post. The Feds MUST follow the money because it is a Paulson heist and it is criminal tax evasion. Follow the money.
It's being argued that it is "confidential" but the "loophole" is a crime.
Elliot Ness
full disclosure on what this shit company did with our money and grave and irreparable harm to them, too?
wow, sounds like a win-win to me.
i was for full disclosure before, now i am salivating over it...
"grave and irreparable harm"
BoA figures that line worked well for bush when he stole the presidency, should work just as well when BoA steals billions.
What a bunch of scumbags.
A whole new kind of executive privilege!
So it will do grave and irreparable harm to the bastards who got the bonuses? Why, did they break the law? Surely if they've nothing to hide etc etc
Hell, we won't even have to change the name!
A) Return the money or B) Have their names and addresses posted in public.
If they were in a small town, they'd never attempt to fleece the public the way they have, because the public would burn their house down.
Because they can hide behind a faceless corporation and remain anonymous, they'll gladly rob people they've never seen and can't put a face on.
That money has to be returned. It's IMMORAL, and they know it. They're TRAITOROUS SCUM.
There oughta' be a LAW!!!!
retired couples who have watched their retirement blown up tuning in to hear the Financial Bobbleheads and losing even more money.
until we start coming forth with a new class of manufacturing and innovation all the rest is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
work in a factory and yes I agree with you.But living wages will have to paid.I don't mind working as hard as I do as long as I can have a decent life. But after five years and making $11.43 an hour.After having taxes,insurances and 401k taken out I bring home less than $300.00.I'm 48 and a single mom.Right now with the economy so bad,management is squeezing us so hard,In business you have to crank out so much per hour per person,and sometimes it's expected to produce things at an impossible rate.It becomes less about reliability and more about numbers.We are all in fear of our jobs so we keep our heads down and grind though.I'm sure if management went to see how we live we are not all mindless bovines that live our lives like plodding animals.
If I was a Merrill or BA shareholder, I'd be PISSED. Those bonuses, paid while the company was losing money hand over fist, could have and should have been retained to pay dividends and redeem some of the massive debt now borne by taxpayers.
I get the picture now - these outfits were not run for the profit of their owners, as is supposed to be the case under capitalism. They were merely mechanisms to pay totally unreasonable, unearned fees to a revolving clique of incompetent hired greedheads.
F*ck 'em all, I say. And cheers to Cuomo. I hope he forces repayment of some of this misbegotten cash.
Did you ever get the feeling that after these scumbags killed the financial system and have caused more human pain around the world than can be imagined, that these masters of the universe might have something to hide?
Screw them to the wall Mr. Cuomo. To hell with the insider secrets and break this stinking can of worms wide open for all to see. Tell us who the real crooks are that have been living high on the hog for decades while our weekly paychecks continued to get smaller and smaller while our pensions and medical benefits disappeared.
Purge all the snakes from the system so the country can move forward again. A vampire hates nothing more than to be dragged out into the light of day and for too many years a veil of darkness that has cloaked our banking system has corrupted itself along with our political system. Someone has to do it. Might as well be you with we the American people behind you.
ah! just think how much easier it will be in the new world order under one faceless government even the idea of solient green may wet your taste buds , its where the useless and worn out worker bees go for rendition!yums yums yums!
I assume they have to declare these bonuses on their tax returns, then it comes out.
OK, wait, just so I make sure I understand this - you can't divulge who made the bonuses because that might let your competitor's know where your profit (AKA - LOSS!!!) center's are!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Oh, Jesus, I think I just wet myself - Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
You're not serious, are you? You are? HHAHAHAHAAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
OK. We'll have to kill you, douchebag...
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!BANG! BANG!! BANG!!!
Are Woo , Cheney and Gonzales now working for Bank of America ?
just rove and paulson and cnbc
Where's my Bonus?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN-6I4UHBd4
this about nails it
Time to find a new bank I guess. See ya B of A.
My God, the entire financial sector is so out of touch with reality. I never had any idea they were this far off the charts.
And to think that CNBC and FOX get away with positioning these guys as "populists"!
The strings for non-secrecy weren't attached to the money giving to BoA from the get go. It's ex post facto for the government to demand any disclosures not already required by regulations, or the bailout laws.
There's no evidence the particular bonus recipients have anything to do with setting policy in the company. If they did, well then I'd hardly feel sympathetic to their situation, but it's still wrong to scape goat them, by making their names public. Those who are mostly to blame already have their names open to the public, as it's a publicly traded company. The officers, and the top shareholders are the ones running the company and making jacked up decisions costing all of us money.
If fraud has occurred, it should be prosecuted, but using bailout money to pay bonuses, or refusal to reduce bonuses, and then use bailout money to buy new businesses is exactly what one would expect business owners to do given the incentives government has provided. People seem to forget that insufficient strings were attached by a Democratic congress and Republican administration. And people seem to totally not get how banking is an insolvent business practice shoved down our throats by the government and the banking industry. Government has given banks license to operate fundamentally overleveraged businesses that a free market would never tolerate.
Our government gave away the money. Our problem is with those insufficient individuals in government.
"If fraud has occurred, it should be prosecuted..."
If?
Oh, the poor scapegoats now have to take, "awards", instead of, "bonuses"! Their names are in the high end attorney\lobbyist clients list right behind Enrons Ken Lay (beat the rap by dying, after flying the Bushes to lil' Georges inaguration), Tom Delay delaying, Newt (not neutered) spewing, Phil Graham offshoring money faster than Reagan could read the script!
If?
Wrong dog, right tree, sit boy! Bark when they tell you! Bite and you find youself in the pound! If... your Masters come looking for you, I doubt they would pay to have you fixed!
As if?
I expect and hope that fraud is identified and prosecuted. I hope it will be the bankers at fault, because then it will mean our government did the work.
But the problem is establishing illegality and earned guilt.
If this cash gift was handed over sloppily, with insufficient effort to establish rules for a beneficial outcome, who is guilty of hurting us?
The "that was easy money" recipient? Or the party who handed over our money, after what I assume amounts to peering intently into bankers' eyes and doing Bush-style "work" of fathoming souls?
How is an "award" better than a "bonus"? Frankly I find it MORE offensive to imagine some doughy white greedy useless fucker being AWARDED some obscene amount of lucre like he just won the science fair with his baking soda volcano. Seriously, how is an award any less corrupt than a bonus for tanking your company???
I'd pay big money to watch that happen.
Man I screwed this up. It was meant to be a reply to kasinca's post way up above. Sorry.
was ok even though I got pissed off at them in 1971, closed my account and moved to B of C (Bank of Commerce). B of C became Rainier Bank and built the coolest building in Seattle. They later became First Interstate, now Wells Fargo.
Seafirst was taken over by BofA in the 90's. That bank is scum.
just out of high school. Rainier Bank was bought by Security Pacific Bank and, in the 1990s, Security Pacific was purchased by Bank of America. Which also took over Seafirst.
We also had People's Bank, was founded by Joshua Green, Seattle Pioneer, which morphed into Pacific, then First Interstate, then Wells Fargo.
And WaMu, our own thrift, the first bank for many of us in elementary school with school savings, now Chase. I'm moving from B of A to a credit union this week.
You need a score card to keep track of the players.
BoA doesn't want anyone to know how much Banker A got in relation to Banker B because Banker A may earn less money than B; Why should Banker A get a bigger Bonus than another Employee who earns a higher salary?
Bonuses are partial and illegal Kickbacks paid to Employees who donate to a companies preferred Political Choices.
If worker salaries effect a companies profitability so do Bonuses and Stock Options.
When you've your hand in the public pocket book, the public has a right to see what you've done with what you've taken. Taking public dollars indicated that Bank of America has already suffered the irreparable harm. I'm beginning to think corporations should put their books online so shareholders can see where every dime is going. It certainly isn't back to share holders, rank and file employees or research and development.
the government/public/people only get what has been agreed to in the contract. you can't just change the rules after the fact. there is no rule that obligates companies to disclose anything, except by contractual agreement. that it was not placed there in the first place is a problem you should be taking up with your congressperson.
Have these guys been paying attention for the last several years? There is no "talent" there!
It would be like me paralyzed with fear that someone might sneak into my house to poach the turds from my septic tank. Who ARE these deranged idiots?
Is tending to our money! For the last 8 years we have been attacked with the fear card....
War in Iraq....
Had to Spy (although they were already illegally spying on us)
Had to have more war funds (althought they were not buy protection for our soldiers , but feeding the war contractors more of our no-bid tax money...
Give a bail out to the financial companies of the sky would fall..
Now give more money "while" the sky in falling and financial companies are given our tax dollars overseas..
Give a check to the auto corporations while they build they plants in Russia , China , India and other parts of the world..
Then to add insult to injury they close American plants while laying off American workers.
We are being BS 'ed and if you can not see this then you have a problem..
We have been sold out to the world Global (monopoly) corportions..
We need a tea party and we need it now...
We have lost our constitution , bill of rights , our military is now run by corporations and Israel, illegal spying is a daily event and our manufacturing plants , jobs and economy has been shipped overseas in a care package..
in any other country in the world these guys would have been hanged a long time ago but nope! not America, let's just let them keep making it worse and worse. If we would institute the death penalty for these kinds of crimes these pussy would stop in a heartbeat!
But unfortunatly the busniness criminals run this country so we will never see justice like that!
Attention all Billionaires for Bush people...here's your next project!
Bonuses For Billionaires - making sure we steal from the poor and give to the rich. It's the american way!
The banks should be investigated, audited and broken up then given to the highest bidder among honest banks. (yes they do exist)
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