SEC charges BofA over false statements in Merrill buy - 1:00 PM

UPDATE - 1:52 - More from MarketWatch BofA pays $33 million SEC penalty for Merrill deal's bonuses The charges are in relation to the institution's controversial acquisition of Merrill WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Bank of America Corp. agreed to a $33 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which said the mega-bank made "materially false and misleading statements" to shareholders about billions in bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch executives before completing its controversial acquisition of the brokerage firm. "The SEC alleges that in proxy materials soliciting the votes of shareholders on the proposed acquisition of Merrill, Bank of America stated that Merrill had agreed that it would not pay year-end performance bonuses or other discretionary compensation to its executives prior to the closing of the merger without Bank of America's consent," the SEC wrote. "In fact, Bank of America had already contractually authorized Merrill to pay up to $5.8 billion in discretionary bonuses to Merrill executives for 2008." According to the SEC's complaint, Bank of America /quotes/comstock/13*!bac/quotes/nls/bac (BAC 15.31, +0.52, +3.52%) said in a November, 2008, joint proxy statement for the acquisition that Merrill said it would not pay year-end bonuses to top executives before closing without Bank of America's consent. "The disclosures in the proxy statement were rendered materially false and misleading by the existence of the prior undisclosed agreement allowing Merrill to pay billions of dollars in bonuses for 2008," the SEC said. The SEC charges come after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Bank of America Chief Executive Ken Lewis and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have received a barrage of criticism from lawmakers over the past couple months. Paulson and Bernanke have recently responded to a wide-variety of concerns expressed by lawmakers, ranging from criticism that they ordered Bank of America Chief Executive Ken Lewis to go through with the Merrill Lynch acquisition against his will, to questions why they didn't oust the bank's management and board upon providing government assistance.

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SEC charges BofA over false statements in Merrill buy - Reuters (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp was charged by the SEC on Monday with making "materially false and misleading statements" in the Merrill Lynch acquisition, court documents said. * SEC says Bank of America said Merrill "had agreed not to pay year-end performance bonuses" before the closing of the merger but that no such agreement had been reached- court documents * SEC says Bank of America had agreed to pay up to $5.8 billion in Merrill bonuses, contrary to statements in merger agreement- court documents * SEC says bank of America falsely claimed that Merrill had agreed not to pay performance bonuses before closing of merger- court documents * SEC seeks injunction barring Bank of America executives from breaking securities laws and seeks fine

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What about Bernanke and Paulson?