The House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform plans to ask Bank of America chief executive Ken Lewis and top federal officials to testify. The panel is chaired by Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y.
Last month, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo released testimony given by Lewis in which he said then Treasury secretary Henry Paulson threatened to oust management and the board if it backed out of the Merrill deal at a critical time for the U.S. financial system. Lewis also said that he kept silent on Merrill's rising losses because Paulson didn't want any public disclosure.
The testimony came out of Cuomo's investigation of bonuses paid to Merrill executives before the deal closed. Bank of America's lack of disclosure about Merrill's troubles until Jan. 16 has spurred lawsuits by shareholders.
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