Southern District of New York Judge Jed S. Rakoff grilled attorneys for the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday about a proposed $150 million settlement — the second submitted to him — that would bring an end to two actions against the Bank of America Corp. stemming from its $50 billion takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co. in 2008.
The actions accuse the bank of failing to disclose to shareholders that it had authorized Merrill to pay up to $5.8 billion in bonuses in 2008 and of keeping shareholders in the dark about “extraordinary” losses Merrill sustained in the two months before the merger.
