Investigating Bank of America
The notes of General Tommy Franks, then a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank of America (B of A), which have been subpoenaed and released by New York Attorney General and Governor wanna-be Andrew Cuomo, reveal the General’s concerns that then-B of A CEO Ken Lewis wanted to keep from public view his issues with the acquisition of Merrill Lynch (ML) by B of A. Stated differently, Lewis knew that ML was worth far les than B of A was paying for it, feared the very public brouhaha that has ensued over the fraudulent waste of federal tax dollars and B of A shareholder dollars, and Gen. Franks recorded all this in his personal handwritten notes of a B of A Board of Directors meeting. Where will this lead? It just might lead to criminal indictments of all involved: Sheila Bair of the FDIC and Sec. Henry Paulson and then-NY Fed chief and now Treasury Sec. Timothy Geithner and Richmond Fed chief Jeffrey Lacher for extortion; and Ken Lewis for fraud. As an aside, whoever leaked Gen. Franks’ personal notes violated state laws protecting grand jury secrecy. That leak is a felony; but don’t look for AG Cuomo to indict someone on his own staff.
