Testimony from a Merrill director filed by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo alleges that the firm’s November 24 letter, in which the company told the head of the House committee that “incentive compensation decisions for 2008 have not yet been made,” was misleading, reports the Wall Street Journal. The firm’s compensation committee had actually voted two weeks earlier to pay bonuses to Merrill employees in December.
The disclosure was part of a court filing yesterday aimed at pressuring Bank of America, which acquired Merrill in January and is being investigated by Cuomo over $3.62 billion in bonuses paid by Merrill even as it was accumulating a net loss of $15.84 billion in the fourth quarter.
Bank of America has refused to hand over the names of Merrill employees who got bonuses, claiming that might hurt the bank’s ability to retain talent. Cuomo cited those details as reasons why a New York state-court judge should force the bank to disclose the information he wants.
A ruling is expected on Friday.