Judgment continues..........
Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; [and] he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. (James 5:1-8)

Stiglitz Says Bank Problems Bigger Than Pre-Lehman (Nobel Prize Winning Economist)

Big Trouble For Bank Of America

Liz Moyer,
09.14.09

By tossing out its Merrill Lynch settlement, a federal judge puts the bank back on the firing line.

Bank of America seemed to have dodged a big legal fight when it reached a $33 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over its handling of the Merrill Lynch acquisition, but a federal judge in New York is putting them right back on the firing line.

Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District Court tossed out the settlement Monday and ordered the matter to trial in February, a move that will force the company to disclose more about its communications internally and with shareholders in the days and weeks leading up to the closing of the Merrill transaction in January. Judge Rakoff said the settlement, reached early in August, was "neither fair, nor reasonable, nor adequate."

Lawyers following the case said the decision could embolden New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to pursue charges against Bank of America executives. Bank of America executives have been accused of withholding material information about Merrill, namely billions of losses racked up in its securities holdings, prior to the shareholder vote on Dec. 5. Bank of America also didn't disclose frantic last-minute negotiations with federal regulators about a $20 billion rescue, which was eventually announced in January, and its approval of nearly $6 billion in bonuses to be paid to Merrill executives before the deal closed.

Bank of America "is in serious, serious trouble now," says St. John's University law professor Anthony Sabino. "The judge's rejection of the SEC settlement, which is of course rooted in the same transactions, will embolden Cuomo to attack BofA head on and get more info about just what happened at the bank when it took over Merrill."

Entire article:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/14/bank-of-america-settlement-business-wall-street-bofa.html