Manipulation. The word has been uttered by Andrew Cuomo, the Minister of Justice of the State of New York. The latter accused Bank of America (BofA), the largest bank in the United States, having committed a "huge fraud" during the merger with Merrill Lynch. He said the former BofA CEO Kenneth Lewis and his former chief financial officer Joe Price, while two continued, would have deliberately hidden the huge losses at Merrill Lynch for a massive federal assistance.

This "arrogant maneuver" after Andrew Cuomo, would have allowed BofA to validate the merger by the shareholders. Once the transaction is approved, the management of Bank of America has made public the statement of loss and "manipulated the federal government to save the deal with billions of taxpayer dollars, claiming falsely that it would cease the agreement without assistance.

The bank responded by saying "disappointed" and said its leaders had always been "good faith". The respective lawyers of Kenneth Lewis and Joe Price state that the accusations are baseless.

150 million dollars in penalties

In addition to these criticisms, the SEC, the gendarme of the Exchange in the United States, announced Thursday that the agreement to settle other lawsuits related to the acquisition of Merrill Lynch now amounted to 150 million cash advance payday loan . The first agreement concluded in August 2009 set out the penalties owed by Bank of America to 33 million.

The SEC alleges that BofA for hiding its shareholders having authorized its future subsidiary Merrill Lynch $ 3.6 billion in bonuses despite losses of the latter in 2008.

The new deal announced Thursday provides for further measures to strengthen the bank's procedures, including the stipulation that shareholders will now have their say on remuneration of the management team. It must still be approved by Judge Jed Rakoff, who had refused last summer how the first agreement.

The SEC also announced that the proceeds of the fine will be distributed to shareholders penalized by the actions of the bank.

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