Givin’ Bank Of America the Finger

March 14th, 2009 by alyx · No Comments · all ur bankz

ken-lewis-finger

The calls for Ken Lewis’ ouster are getting a little bit louder. Activist investor group Change to Win already has started a crusade to vote Kennay “Most Likely To GTFO” at the April 29th meeting, and now, in one of those stories that absolutely begged for a LOLFed headline, a man named Jerry Finger who has been involved with BAC for over 20 years is calling for Lewis and company to get the boot:

In an interview, [Finger] said he is asking shareholders to reject Mr. Lewis as chairman and turn down the re-elections of lead director Temple Sloan and Jackie Ward, a retired software executive who chairs the bank’s asset-quality committee… What led Mr. Finger to confront Mr. Lewis now was the bank’s decision to buy Merrill Lynch on Jan. 1 despite billions of dollars in fourth-quarter losses at the securities firm. On Jan. 22, Mr. Finger’s Finger Interests Number One Ltd. filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, charging that Bank of America executives and board members had “unlawfully concealed” material information by not disclosing the losses prior to a Dec. 5 shareholder vote. The bank’s stock is down 61.6% since the vote even after closing up 18.6% Thursday to $5.85. Mr. Finger’s shares, valued at more than $76 million two years ago, now are worth $8.7 million.

(Can I just say that “Finger Interests Number One Ltd.” is probably the most awesome name anyone has incorporated under, ever? Also, it sounds like a Japanese concern.)

Finger is evidently mad as hell, as this isn’t the first trouble he’s caused for BAC this year. I found that he also filed suit in NY against Bank of America and pretty much its entire board/C-suite (case number 09-CV-060606?) for violation of federal securities laws, accusing them of concealing information by not disclosing their Merrill Lynch losses prior to the December 5 shareholder vote. Here it is via Scribd:

Finger v. BAC

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