Bank of America was charged with failing to disclose information about the losses the company would endure with the Merrill Lynch merger to its shareholders. The crisis culminated with the CEO's resignation. But what about the mass exodus that occurred a year before CEO Lewis' resignation? This should have been a sure sign to shareholders that something was amiss with the deal. It should also have been a sure sign that Bank of America was in big trouble.
Kenneth Lewis fired several top legal executives in December 2008. The casualties included: Tim Mayopoulos, the general counsel of Bank of America; Amy Woods Brinkley, the chief risk officer who reportedly fired Mayopoulos and then retired in June 2009; David Onorato, the chief of litigation and securities inquires at Bank of America; Helga Houston, the compliance and risk management executive; and Rosemary Berkery, the general counsel for Merrill Lynch who left the company in January 2009. All of these legal executives would have been directly involved in any disclosure decisions to the shareholders regarding the Merrill Lynch loss.
Sounds fishy, huh? This much house cleaning foreshadows crisis. If a leader has this many people beneath him or her who they feel can't be trusted or who don't trust the leader, how can the company expect to put forth a united front in the face of crisis? They can't.
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/following-the-bodies-at-bank-of-america/
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