CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Bank of America Corp. and some executives may face charges if the company keeps invoking attorney-client privilege to avoid answering questions about the Merrill Lynch & Co. takeover, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office said.
“Bank of America’s indiscriminate invocation of the attorney-client privilege is hindering this office’s ability to make fair and fully informed decisions as to what charges, if any, to bring and whether individual Bank of America officers should be charged,’’ Cuomo’s office said in a letter to Lewis Liman, a lawyer for the bank. His office said the company can’t rely on such a defense while refusing to disclose the substance of the legal advice.
Senior bank officials didn’t disclose “material nonpublic information’’ to shareholders on at least four instances in the fourth quarter, said the letter. The bank has blocked former general counsel Timothy Mayopoulos and chief financial officer Joe Price from answering questions, citing attorney-client privilege, according to the letter.
Shareholders approved the merger on Dec. 5. Chief executive Kenneth Lewis and Price told federal regulators later that month the bank might cancel the acquisition because of Merrill’s mounting losses. Regulators pressed the bank to complete the acquisition on Jan. 1.
Mayopoulos told investigators he gave advice on Dec. 1 to Price and another senior bank executive on whether Bank of America had legal grounds to cancel the acquisition. The letter asks for a response by Monday.
