Both the NY Times and the Financial Times are reporting that the Federal judge hearing the proposed settlement between the SEC and Bank of America is unhappy. It seems Judge Rakoff has issues with the amount of the settlement ($33 million vs $5.8 billion paid out in bonuses -- undoubtedly to retain the highly skilled) and the fact that BA neither admits or denies the charges.
My favorite line, which was edited out of the later story in the Times, has the BA attorney telling the judge that neither BA boss Lewis and now former Merill CEO Thain didn't know what was in the document they were signing, which was negotiated by their lawyers.
It was Judge Rakoff who refused the SEC/Worldcom settlement in 2003. You may recall that then Worldcom CEO Bernie Ebbers defended himself by saying he didn't know what was going on, it was his staff's fault.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment