From the wires:
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (AP) — New York’s attorney general says government officials pressured Bank of America’s CEO Ken Lewis to complete the bank’s purchase of Merrill Lynch and threatened his job security. A letter from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office released Thursday said Lewis testified in February that former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke threatened to oust Bank of America’s management if the bank tried to back out of buying the investment bank. The government helped orchestrate the acquisition of Merrill by Bank of America over the same weekend in September that another investment bank, Lehman Brothers, went under, setting off one of the most intense periods of the financial crisis. Bank of America acquired New York-based Merrill Jan. 1.
I feel like I just watched a scene from the Godfather:
DON CORLEONE Barzini will move against you first.
MICHAEL How?
DON CORLEONE He will get in touch with you through someone you absolutely trust. That person will arrange a meeting, guarantee your safety…and at that meeting you will be assassinated.
