The Securities Exchange Commission decided that Bank of America is going to have to pay $33 million for failing to alert shareholders about bonus payments made to Merrill Lynch.
The SEC filed charges against BofA this morning for misleading its’ investors about paying billions of dollars in bonuses to top executives at Merrill Lynch, the brokerage giant they just purchased.
“Regulators alleged that the Charlotte, N.C.-based lender failed to disclose plans to give out $5.8 billion in bonuses for fiscal year 2008 in its proxy statement. Instead, Bank of America told shareholders that Merrill had agreed not to pay year-end performance bonuses, according to the SEC.”
“‘Failing to disclose that a struggling company will pay out billions of dollars in performance bonuses obviously violates that duty and warrants the significant financial penalty imposed by today’s settlement,’ Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC’s division of enforcement, said in a statement.”
BofA agreed to settle without admitting to the charges.
Check out the original article: BofA to pay $33M fine over Merrill bonuses
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