Merrill Lynch news stories on Newser

A First for US Public Pension Fund: Bankruptcy

Kate Schwartz — Thu, 03 May 2012 10:00:19 CDT

It's a high-profile milestone out of a not-so-high-profile place. The Northern Mariana Islands' public pension fund sought bankruptcy protection last month, a notable move in that it's the first such US fund to do so. The Wall Street Journal paints a picture of a complicated road to collapse for the...

Bank of America Is a Crime Syndicate

Kevin Spak — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:55:05 CDT

Matt Taibbi gives Bank of America the " vampires squid " treatment today, savaging "the ultimate Too Big to Fail bank" as "a hypergluttonous ward of the state whose limitless criminal conspiracies we'll all be paying for until the end of time," in a lengthy Rolling Stone piece. "These guys are some...

Feds to Bank of America: Get Your Act Together

Kevin Spak — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 07:16:00 CST

Federal regulators have warned Bank of America’s board that the bank will face a public enforcement action if it doesn’t take steps to fix its corporate governance, risk management, and liquidity, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . The bank has been operating under a confidential memorandum of understanding directing it...

AIG Sues Bank of America in Attempt to Recover Billions

Matt Cantor — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 06:44:27 CDT

With the Justice Department filing few criminal charges related to the financial crisis, AIG is taking action of its own: The mostly taxpayer-owned firm is preparing to sue Bank of America for allegedly misleading it about the quality of Bank of America's mortgage-backed securities—an accusation that gets to the...

Banks to Pay SEC for Financial Crisis Fraud

Kevin Spak — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 07:06:22 CDT

A number of top Wall Street banks are on the verge of settling fraud allegations with the SEC for the mortgage-bond shenanigans that led to the financial crisis, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . The cases are being handled individually, since each bank faces substantially different charges, with the first...

How Banks' Fake Daisy-Chains Led to Meltdown

Evann Gastaldo — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:40:21 CDT

An extensive ProPublica investigation reveals what it calls “one of the greatest episodes of self-dealing in financial history.” Banks, most notably Merrill Lynch, set the stage for the economic meltdown by rewarding themselves for said “self-dealing” during the final two years of the housing bubble. They created “daisy chains” of...

Hong Kong Fines Merrill Lynch for Concealed Losses

Mon, 31 May 2010 08:38:31 CDT

Hong Kong regulators have fined two units of Merrill Lynch $450,000 after an executive's concealment of losses in a trading account went undetected by the investment bank for nearly a year, Hong Kong financial authorities announced today. A Merrill Lynch managing director falsely marked a trading book in exotic...

Lawsuit: Merrill Lynch Did Same Deal as Goldman

John Johnson — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:57:20 CDT

Pro Publica has reported that Goldman Sachs wasn't the only bank hawking built-to-fail mortgage investments, and now it has emails accusing Merrill Lynch of the practice. The Dutch bank Rabobank is suing Merrill, and as soon as it saw the charges against Goldman, it sent an email to the US...

Other Wall St. Banks as Guilty as Goldman

Kevin Spak — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:15:05 CDT

The SEC's fraud suit against Goldman Sachs might be just the tip of the iceberg, because other investment banks engaged in exactly the same sleight of hand, Pro Publica reports. Goldman is accused of failing to disclose that a hedge fund was both helping to create, and betting against, the...