Really, BofA? Really?
by law shucks on February 17, 2010
Mayopoulos was terminated in an attempt by Lewis to avert the imminent departure of the bank’s then-head of global corporate and investment banking, Brian Moynihan, by offering Moynihan the position occupied by Mayopoulos and upgrading the position to one that directly reported to the chief executive officer.
We’re not buying that, and we’re not the only ones. After the jump, Judge Rakoff’s concerns, plus two flaws in the explanation.
First, Rakoff, whose opinion really matters.
Rakoff has repeatedly questioned why the SEC didn’t come to the same conclusions about Mayopoulos’s termination as New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has filed a separate lawsuit in state court in Manhattan.
At a hearing earlier this month, Judge Rakoff said that Cuomo’s lawsuit draws the inference that Mr. Mayopoulos was terminated because he wanted to disclose widening losses at Merrill Lynch before the deal closed.
So they didn’t want to lose Moynihan (pictured).
But does anyone really believe that a guy who hadn’t practiced in 10 years wanted to be a lawyer again all of a sudden? And that’s really the best and only spot they could find for him? Who was supposed to run the law department, anyway?
In a strange parallel to his GC run, the IB/WM job didn’t last long either and resulted in the departure of another incumbent. Moynihan was promoted to head of consumer banking in August 2009, replacing Liam McGee, who resigned from to focus on getting a CEO job elsewhere (which ultimately worked out for him, he ended up running The Hartford).
So in order to keep around the guy who ended up running the company, they forced out Mayopoulos and then McGee stepped aside.
Finally, there are classier ways of handling this, although the result may be the same. See, for example, IBM’s hiring of Bob Weber from Jones Day as Chief Legal Officer. They brought him in and set up him reporting directly to CEO Sam Palmisano, and above Don Rosenberg, who had just been promoted to General Counsel. Of course, that led Rosenberg to leave not too much later for a ride that ultimately included
a spin on the Apple merry-go-round.
Here’s hoping Brian O’Keefe has a good employment contract.
Related posts:
- Rakoff Won't Rubber Stamp BofA Settlement
- Tracking Down the Lawyers from the Lehman Diaspora
- B of A's Fired GC
- Barclays Brings in Law Dept Costcutter
- Morgan Stanley Shakes Up GC Office
Tagged as:
bank of america,
ibm,
jones day
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I smell a cover up, too. But good luck getting anyone to admit anything at this point.
I smell a cover up, too. But good luck getting anyone to admit anything at this point.
Yeah I see a cover up as well.
Yeah I see a cover up as well.
This is totally lame – I agree with you – wtf would Moynihan who is running an important business unit want to get sucked out on some GC job for a bank? People try to go from GC to the biz side, not the other way around. Glad Rakoff saw right through it – kudos to him for sitting on the bench and still seeing the bizness picture.
This is totally lame – I agree with you – wtf would Moynihan who is running an important business unit want to get sucked out on some GC job for a bank? People try to go from GC to the biz side, not the other way around. Glad Rakoff saw right through it – kudos to him for sitting on the bench and still seeing the bizness picture.