Merrill Lynch’s top executives were paid-out over $200 million in bonuses in 2008. Clearly these were traditional performance-based bonuses, as the Company reported losses in excess of $27 billion the same year that these bonuses were distributed. Now, there is quite a bit of “he said, she said” between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch in regard the responsibility of this pay-out. Merrill Lynch claims that federally bailed-out BofA knew about the bonuses prior to acquiring them. Whereas, BofA said they knew nothing of such bonuses. Now, seven former Merrill Lynch executives have been subpoenaed by the New York Attorney General in regard to over $3.6 billion of paid-out bonuses prior to the BofA acquisition. Let’s see how this one plays out.
