On April 24, I wrote Let the Criminal Indictments Begin: Paulson, Bernanke, Lewis.



You will be pleased to read Ex-BofA chief Lewis charged with fraud.



New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Thursday it was bringing civil charges against senior Bank of America executives, including former company CEO Ken Lewis, for their role in the company's controversial purchase of Merrill Lynch.



Cuomo's office, which has been aggressively pursuing an investigation into the merger and subsequent bonuses paid to former Merrill employees, said it was charging Lewis and Bank of America's former chief financial officer Joe Price with fraud.



The lawsuit contends that the bank's management team understated the losses at Merrill in order to get shareholders to approve the deal, then subsequently overstated the firm's willingness to terminate the merger to regulators weeks later in order to get $20 billion of additional aid from the federal government.



"Bank of America and its officials defrauded the government and the taxpayers at a very difficult and sensitive time," Cuomo said at a press conference Thursday, joined by federal bailout cop Neil Barofsky, whose office aided in the investigation. "I believe that Bank of America officials exploited this fear."

One Down, Many More To Go

April 24, 2009

June 26, 2009

July 17, 2009

October 20, 2009

January 07, 2010

January 26, 2010

January 28, 2010

Neil Barofsky Says Handcuffs Are Coming

Barofsky Has 77 Active Fraud Cases

Investigations of misconduct related to the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program expanded in the fourth quarter as the U.S. rescue fund’s watchdog increased opened cases by 41 percent.



Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky began 25 criminal and civil probes in the quarter, and had 77 total active cases, according to a quarterly report to Congress published yesterday.



Examiners are looking into possible wrongdoing linked to the financial-industry bailout, including insider trading, accounting violations, mortgage fraud, obstruction of justice and money laundering, according to the report. Barofsky didn’t identify the targets of pending investigations, though details of some cases have emerged separately.



Barofsky confirmed last week he is probing whether the Federal Reserve Bank of New York improperly limited release of information about payments to American International Group Inc.’s counterparties when the insurer was rescued.