Quick Take: Kucinich Grills Lewis on Fed Emails

By  Lagan Sebert on Jun 17, 2009

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Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis took a pounding Thursday from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. One of the most damning exchanges occurred between Lewis and Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), when Kucinich exposed Lewis' request for government cover from shareholder lawsuits stemming from BofA's troubled merger with Merrill Lynch

Prior to the merger, according to Kucinich, Lewis requested a letter from New York Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson declaring that the government had ordered him to acquire Merrill's losses. Kucinich presented e-mails from Bernanke and his general counsel contradicting Lewis' own claim that his lawyers didn't think disclosure of Merrill losses to his shareholders before the merger was necessary.

Crossposted with the Huffington Post