Ken Lewis Faces the Music
Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis will be sitting down with investigators from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office today as part of the probe into the $3.6 billion in bonuses that Merrill Lynch paid out just days before it was acquired by BofA. Lewis didn't indicate what time he was scheduled to give his deposition, although in typical Lewisian fashion, he made it sound like something he was thrilled to be doing: "I look forward to the chance to speak candidly and forthrightly and honestly and tell the story." But he may be in for a rude awakening when he turns up at Cuomo's offices today.
Henry Blodget, who has "had the pleasure of being dragged in for questioning by a New York Attorney General before," is one of the few people who can describe what Lewis can look forward to:
• Ken Lewis will be ushered into a cramped, dingy conference room with a fold-up type table and fold-up-type chairs—with the furniture choices and decor designed to tell Ken Lewis he's not in Kansas anymore.
• The room's temperature will either be much too hot or much too cold.
• Ken Lewis and his lawyers will sit on one side of the fold-up table. Andrew Cuomo's investigators will sit on the other side. (Cuomo will not demean himself by asking questions of the CEO of the country's biggest bank. One big purpose of this undertaking, after all, is to remind Ken Lewis who's the real alpha-male.)
• Cuomo's investigators will try to hide the fact that they're really excited about being able to interrogate the CEO of the country's biggest bank.
