This is probably much ado about nothing. Wall Street owns Congress…and the White House.

Theater to amuse the public & make sure we are uninformed.

The thing about legal decisions like this, is that a lawyer can always find a legal justification for almost anything. They did it for torture, signing statements… you name it. Why would this be a problem?

We are NOT a nation of laws.

Actually, if Townes succeeds in getting the info, WE–the public– get the info. Then we can make informed decisions.

Transparency is a good thing

The flying monkeys all thought the Wicked Witch of the West was unstoppable, too. And then came that little bucket of water.

Chuck Schumer is trying to open bloggers up to liability, by denying them shield law protection. He wouldn’t do that if he and the Rahmas and Bahmas in the White House weren’t afraid about what a little well-written and persistent sunshine could do to their control over events and perceptions about them.

Keep on writin’, and readin’ and bloggin and being a persistent support and pain to your Congresscritter. It’s like putting a light on in the store and closing the cash register in between customers. It makes it a little harder to steal. Besides, you never know what might melt a politician’s heart, or the rest of her, either.

If we get to see the info, we won’t be uninformed

You can probably get his fax or email from his office & forward the post.

Agreed.
We are a nation of lawyers but not of laws.

The theater part is trying to get it but deliberately not succeeding.

Most politicians have no heart to melt.

The flying monkeys all thought the Wicked Witch of the West was unstoppable, too. And then came that little bucket of water.

What a great line. I may borrow that from you one day. *g*

Here’s the thing, Judge Rakoff has ALREADY screwed up the B of A/SEC coverup, bless him. And as more and more of the backstory gets out and we find out what really happened, more judges will smell a rat and more prosecutors will grow a spine and the public narrative will change.

We’ll see. I don’t know enough about Townes to predict what he will do. His next step is to issue a subpoena in place of the polite letter.

OT
Reporter who got the Buenos Aires story on Sanford is on cspan right now, talking about how she did it.

I don’t know anything about Townes, but feel free to tar all the pols with the same brush, they’re such a disgusting bunch. That way, my only surprises are positive ones.

Great post; and I agree. I would add that the attempted 33 million fine scam was an effort to paper over a loss to the shareholders of approximately 6 Billion.

I would add that the attempted 33 million fine scam was an effort to paper over a loss to the shareholders of approximately 6 Billion.

I’m not sure how you are using the term “loss”.

The $33 Million scam was to paper over the payment of $5.2 Billion in bonuses to Merrill Execs right after B of A told its shareholders it would NOT pay the bonuses if the shareholders approved the purchase of Merrill by B of A.

In addition, there is the matter of the actual “losses” that B of A experienced as a result of the Merrill purchase, which were much greater than the estimates given to shareholders to win their approval of the merger.

So, there is yet a second “loss” issue that is still waiting to be addresses. Was the estimate accidentally wrong? or was the estimate deliberately wrong? I don’t think the SEC has even started working on that one yet.

The lie about the bonuses is so crystal clear and such an easy case.

B of A had already ripped off the shareholders by the amount of the bonuses and should not be allowed to use shareholder money to pay the fines, thereby scamming the shareholders a second time

not to mention those of us who gave b of a their bailout in the first place, they are using our money to pay fines they incurred by abusing our funds

sic stuff going on here

Especially Ed Towns.

Why are the shareholders not suing to get the money back? Merrill Lynch employees got cash they were not suppose to get the BOA stockholders cash.
BOA executives are employees if the drive through guy at Mcdonalds gives you cash for some reason McDonalds cash and a lawyer says its ok well its not the drive through employees cash to give.
The lawyer defense only works if the lawyer is sane and I hope advising within the law.
Proof should be given that BOA was within the law.

I see a lot of lawsuits happening in the future no matter how this deal goes.

If the legal beagle firm gave BofA bad advise, poor BofA can sue their ass. Let the fun begin, televised I hope.

[Please note, this is similar to the “John Yoo said I could” defense to torture, but I digress.]

When if ever is the bar association going to take away John’s law license Scooter Libby lost his for less, and I still think Scooter got away with a fast one.

As opposed to people who may be paid to infiltrate comments sections?

Whats the likely fallout of the second loss who made these misrepresentations to stockholders and will they get punished?

Three cheers for Judge Rakoff

Ed Towns represents neighborhoods in downtown Brooklyn. He is a staunch supporter of the banks and Wall Street. He voted for the Bush bankruptcy bill and is a friend of free trade (as opposed to fair trade). He plans to retire and turn the seat over to his son.

Don’t hold your breath about Towns doing anything.

52 week 2.53 – 38.50

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3ABAC

Click the 5 year chart at the link BOA has gone from a high over $50 a share to $2.53 a share this year and under Obama today its around $17 a share.
With lawsuits and still unanswered questions about funny numbers does anyone think the current price is real?
Can anyone gage what a fair price for any bank stock should be?
Not that I want to invest in banks.

I think Townes might have been one of the congresscritters implicated in some way in the Countrywide VIP loan scandal. Didn’t B of A buy Countrywide, too? I think Countrywide destroyed all the evidence before the sale but it might look better for anyone implicated to look like they are tough on B of A. Look how much tougher Dodd has been on bankers since he got a little scared. Still no dragon slayer, perhaps, but a heck of a lot better than he was.

not to mention those of us who gave b of a their bailout in the first place, they are using our money to pay fines they incurred by abusing our funds

Actually the bailout funds appear to have been roughly the same amount as the bonuses, so essentially the bailout funded the bonuses.

Yes, sick

They have refused to supply the information claiming, you guessed it, attorney client privilege.

Little things like this tell me do not invest in BOA if you won’t explain why you paid those guys…well I think you have something to hide.

The lawyer defense only works if the lawyer is sane and I hope advising within the law.
Proof should be given that BOA was within the law.

Ahhhh, TCU, you have hit on the essence of the implied waiver doctrine. If you are going to use “may lawyer said it’s OK” as a defense, then you have to put up or shut up on the issue of exactly what your lawyer told you.

There was a tape last week of Alan Grayson interogating the attorney for the FED. One of the thing he was trying to ascertain was if the FED was manipulating stock prices. The attorney said that there is some involvement but would not identify other than to say it was a unit at the NY FED.

In what venue do they put up or shut up and do regular people get to find out?

When if ever is the bar association going to take away John’s law license

Damned if I know. I didn’t see it, but Marcy Wheeler tells me there was a kick ass episode of Law & Order last night that put a “names have been changed to protect from lawsuits) John Yoo on trial for his crappy memos.

I have to find this episode somewhere and watch it. She got a little You Tube snippet up on one of her posts.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE that Mr. Wolf did that because it will probably reach and educate more regular folks out there that a million weedy technical posts from folks like me.

Whats the likely fallout of the second loss who made these misrepresentations to stockholders and will they get punished?

The second case will be a harder case to prove. you have to show that B of A knew or reasonably should have known that the info it was giving to shareholders was incorrect.

B of A is likely to claim that no one saw this coming and they gave their best honest opinion and just happened to guess wrong.

That case will turn on one of two things:
1) deep in the weeds document analysis
2) whistleblowers

Which stock prices the banks? Greenspan’s cronies helped create this banking crisis by manipulating interest rates and now they are going after the stock market too?
We are doomed Helicopter Ben couldn’t manipulate his way out of a paper bag he is Hoover economics for 2009.

Dick Wolf
Dank!(reverb) Dank!(reverb)

no one saw this coming

The Mantra of the Bush Years

Which stocks was not discussed but the FED operates through some firms to accomplish the task.

Paula, the political winds are such that even guys who got huge amounts of mullah from Wall Street, like Sen Schumer, find it easy to suggest tough regulation. There is more than enough political coverage for these guys to do the right thing.

In fact, there is so much outrage both left and right about the frauds and the bailouts, that there is little incentive for them to do the wrong thing. Plus banksters are almost afraid to donate now for fear of being accused of influence buying and a backlash that might get them indicted.

This is a perfect storm for those of us hoping to find out what really happened.

I’m not predicting that what I want to see will actually occur, just pointing out that conditions are right

Thanks for doing such a great job answering my questions I do appreciate it:)

In what venue do they put up or shut up and do regular people get to find out?

In this particular case, the venue would be Jed Rakoff’s courtroom.

Judge Rakoff used to prosecute securities fraud back when he was an AUSA in SDNY. He still knows his stuff.

Which stocks don’t matter unless you are invested in them or you are a prosecutor. I worry the Fed could bring down the stock market like they brought down the housing market their track record is not so good.

I worry the Fed could bring down the stock market like they brought down the housing market their track record is not so good.

In theory, the Fed could crash any market it chose to. But its job is to do the opposite

The episode, “Memo From The Dark Side” is available on iTunes for $2.99.

There’s always Chris Dodd who got his bribes from CountryWide’s Mazzulo. What a guy.

Sander, the Senate ethics Committee cleared Dodd. Dodd got the same rate as was offered to non VIP customers during that same period.

Your not reassuring me

in other words, no bailout, business as usal minus “bonus”

on what planet do we live?

Sounds like Bush was making sure his friends got paid

Bush WH pushed BOA on some of these deals and they I presumed got told to give these bonus by…Bush WH perhaps?

Is there a potential for clawback in this case? How about RICO?

Thanks so much for this post.

I am getting quite tired of the, “we didn’t know what to do so we asked a lawyer to know right from wrong,” as a defense for malpractice.

Better yet, it was more like, “We knew what crap we were pulling so we thoughtfully talked to a lawyer to protect our arses.” Quite the intent there.

They were high-end, well informed players who knew better. There is no room for an ignorance defense. What a sham to hide behind ACPriv.

BTW, hello!

TCU, your first lawsuit for $10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 and change.

However, I don’t think this first suit is going to be a winner. Still….

Yes then we can freeze assets can’t we?

RICO? errr, maybe.

I think clawback would be more likely from simple rescission based on fraud.

hello to you

So he didn’t get a sweet heart mortgage? That was all lies, right?

Since the SEC was willing to let this go at sharholders expense with no admission of wrongdoing, why doesn’t the SEC simply agree with BOA to dismiss the action. This they can do without the Judge agreeing or having to seek the Judge;s permission. This is what happened in the infamous IBM case.

He got a mortgage at a rate that was offered to their non VIP customers. I think, however, he appeared on the CEO’s VIP list. The CEO kept track of important people who applied for mortgages.

But that would not be Dodd’s fault, it would be the CEO’s internal tracking.

SSSHHHHHHhhhhh

Don’t give them any ideas

ok, but is there something I am missing? See F.R.Civ.P. 41(a)(1)(A)(ii)

Does this mean they got John Yoo to write a CYA memo?

I LOVE LOVE LOVE that Mr. Wolf did that because it will probably reach and educate more regular folks out there that a million weedy technical posts from folks like me.

Since the Miraculous Change to Digital TV, I now receive only the local PBS. No more Law ‘n’ Order or CSI. Please don’t quit your “weedy technical” posting. I like it when the names aren’t changed to protect the guilty.