In strikingly unenthusiastic fashion, federal Judge Jed Rakoff signed off on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s plan to fine Bank of America $150 million after failing to tell shareholders of about $16 billion in impending losses at Merrill Lynch.
“While better than nothing, this is half-baked justice at best,” wrote Mr. Rakoff in his ruling released Monday, a week before the case was scheduled to go to trial. “The amount of the fine appears paltry.”
The judge wrote in his report that his court was “shaking its head” and that, based solely on the merits, the settlement between the SEC and BofA should be rejected as “inadequate and misguided.” Yet he elected to go along with the SEC’s proposal, citing deference to the authority of regulators and adding that federal judges should be wary of the “power to impose their own preferences…”
The judge’s ruling also seems like a final slap at the reputation of the SEC. The federal agency was prepared to accept a $33 million fine from BofA last year until Mr. Rakoff rejected that settlement.
In the end, the judge signed off on the $150 million penalty—equal to about 3% of BofA’s pretax income last year—by citing a distinguished soothsayer and baseball player. In considering the tortured nature of the BofA case, the judge quoted Yogi Berra, who is said to have said: “I wish I had an answer to that because I’m getting tired of answering that question.”
They’re just getting better at covering their tracks.
I want my fucking country back. I am willing to fight for her. Gime a target.
$150 million to the SEC for looking the other way, and how much for the shareholders?
Teabaggers really make me appreciate the fact that Obama and the Democrats run the government despite the very questionable results.
When the choices are between the ineffective and corrupt (the Decmocrats) and the stupid and corrupt (the Republicans), I favor the ineffective party because at least the bad things that will happen are very predictable and will occur in slow motion.
Democrats: Spend and spend
Republicans: Spend and tax cut taxes
Democrats: Anti-Business
Republicans: Pro Business in a way that sends all the jobs overseas and gives us technical support from India
Democrats: Spend us into oblivion
Republicans: Talk about being against that, while spending us into oblivion
What a wonderful political system we have in this country!
Any one read The Economist’s latest article “Is America ungovernable?”?
http://tinyurl.com/yhsshfb
The judge is on the take. WTF, it’s legal now!
The SEC gets $150million.
How much for shareholders? -$150million – they get shafted again. BofA will pay the fine, and the amount will come out of the profits, which will reduce the dividend to shareholders.
#3 What you are referring to is not Republicans, but RINOs. Those are Republicans in Name Only who should be primaried out by conservatives who will cut spending, make America a friendly place for business again, and actually follow the Constitution.
#4 yankinwaoz
Just read it and it’s an interesting view.
What it doesn’t even touch on is why the American public might not want ‘change’.
And for that you only have to look at the fear mongering and confusion that is rampant.
So even assuming the article is correct in principal – democracy is still broken if the people are misinformed. And to prove my point I’ve got two words for you ‘death panels’.
#7 Benjamin
Relabelling is a nasty business.
I hope you were shouting out that Bush was a RINO through the last administration. I’m assuming he was. Its so hard to tell who’s what these days.
If its true you might find ironically that there are more ‘RINOs’ in the Republican party than anything else.
What do you do then? Who you supposed to vote for if you want a true Republican?
#7: Republicans and the people who fund them are the ones who have moved our jobs to (for instance) India and Malaysia where engineers and scientists are paid a small fraction of what they would be paid in the US or Europe.
Conservative Republicans will do the same, then wonder why Americans are being laid off in droves and said Conservatives aren’t being elected.
#4 yankinwaoz
I’ve seen that article the problem is it’s not just the United States it’s every country on the planet.
The Financial collapse is going as planned by the Oligarchs it’s not a left right partisan issue.
What part of Securities. Exchange. Commission. doesn’t work?
The fact that it leaves us quite insecure?
The fact that it’s not an open exchange, but a deal-making old-boy network of insiders?
Or the fact that nobody does anything without their commission?
More like the money mafia.
“The Financial collapse is going as planned by the Oligarchs it’s not a left right partisan issue.”
It’s caused by both Republicans and Democrats who spend and spend. Can we send anyone to Washington to do what is good for our country? We need to get back on the gold standard, stop borrowing from China, and only spend the receipts from the previous year.
#13 – “We need to get back on the gold standard, stop borrowing from China, and only spend the receipts from the previous year.”
I’m honored to have such a distinguished economist as #13 posting to this site.
(For anyone who missed it, I was being sarcastic.)
btw #13, I bet you have a credit card, a car loan and a mortgage. So just STFU about borrowing.
#10 Floyd: “Republicans and the people who fund them are the ones who have moved our jobs to (for instance) India and Malaysia where engineers and scientists are paid a small fraction of what they would be paid in the US or Europe.”
So what would you do Floyd if you were in control of those jobs? How would you compete against workers “paid a small fraction”? How would you make television sets in the US again?
I would of hit them for 1/2 the profit margin of LAST YEAR..
How much did he fine the government, which forced the chairman to hide these details?
I’ve always been a proponent of the death penalty for high financial crimes.
Once a dozen or so executives are executed, the rest will quickly fall in line.
Forks in the road. Toyota has many connections in congress. We have a defective congress with bad steering and the pedal to the metal ready to hit a tree of liberty. People are going to die or get hurt. It’s a rough game.