Bank of America Pays $137 Million to ‘Settle’ Bribery Charges
combined news services
Published: December 7, 2010 04:06PM
Washington • Bank of America has agreed to pay $137 million to resolve allegations that it bribed local officials to win business from cities and towns.
Federal and state officials announced the settlement Tuesday with the nation’s largest bank.
This puts Bank of America one-up over Citibank and Goldman Sachs for the reality show contest entitled “Who can steal the most money without going to jail.”
The other similar reality show “How to avoid jail while neither admitting or denying guilt” is not limited to the Big Three. There are literally hundreds of American corporations in that category and, of course, the SEC is the greatest enabler of this practice.
In this case the SEC didn’t even levy a fine. They didn’t just turn the other cheek—they bent over and told Bank of America to have at it.
Bank of America has neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in its settlements with the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve and attorneys general for 20 states.
The Justice Department said Bank of America came forward in 2007 and disclosed that Banc of America Securities, a division of the bank, was paying officials to get them to invest their proceeds from municipal bond sales with the bank. In addition to the bribes, the government said Banc of America Securities received information about competing bids for contracts, which gave the bank a competitive advantage when making its proposal
The disclosure led federal official to launch an investigation into the business of reinvesting municipal bond proceeds. It also allowed the company to qualify for the department’s antitrust corporate leniency program, avoiding criminal charges and fines.
The securities unit agreed to pay $36 million in restitution to settle the SEC’s civil fraud charges. It also is paying $101 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and those municipalities that the government said were harmed by Bank of America’s “anti-competitive conduct.”
The SEC did not levy a fine against Bank of America.
In a separate accord with the Federal Reserve, BofA agreed to take steps to strengthen its board’s oversight of compliance with proper procedures in bidding for investment business.
“Bank of America is pleased to put this matter behind it, and has already voluntarily undertaken numerous remediation efforts,” the Charlotte, N.C.-based company said in a statement. “Bank of America continues to cooperate with all agencies on their inquiries into practices by various companies.”
And under their breath they said, “We love these cooperating government agencies. We love this kind regulation. Why would we be against regulation? As long as we don’t have to face a jury we will be just fine.”
Actually Bank of America is part of Wall Street cartel that has purchased the American regulatory system through the ballot box.
We will know that justice has returned to America when a CEO is put behind bars and a common thief settles for a fine without having to admit or deny guilt.
© 2010 The Salt Lake Tribune