Monday, September 14, 2009

Wilde Ruling

Here Comes the judge, here comes the judge....

The best news I heard all day was that a judge in lower Manhatten rejected the $33 million settlement between the SEC and Bank of America, over the bank's failure to fully disclose the bonuses paid at Merrill Lynch. The judge wrote that the settlement “does not comport with the most elementary notions of justice and morality”.

The judge would have no truck with the fact that that hefty fine would be paid by the bank’s shareholders, when they were the ones who were supposed to have been injured by the lack of disclosure.

“It is quite something else for the very management that is accused of having lied to its shareholders to determine how much of those victims’ money should be used to make the case against the management go away,” the judge wrote.

The judge was also none too happy with the SEC for agreeing to the settlement. Last month he had ordered the SEC to explain why it hadn't pursued charges against specific executives at Bank of America over the accusations. Apparently he wasn't satisfied. Rakoff, you rock!
Maybe the sweetest part of Judge Jed Rakoff's ruling was when he quoted Oscar Wilde’s “Lady Windermere’s Fan” at the end of his ruling: "A cynic is someone “who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

6 comments:

  1. Awesome! Good news story! Is that Huggy Bear? I love a Judge that will quote Oscar Wilde. A thing of beauty!

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  2. Yes, that's one of the things I loved about the story too --the Oscar Wilde quote. Was Sammy Davis Jr, referred to as Huggy Bear? I never knew that.

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  3. Oh shit! Yep, that's Sammy. Huggy Bear is from the Mod Squad. Antonio Fargas, I think...

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  4. let me correct the both of you. 'huggy bear' was the character on "starsky and hutch"! sammy davis played the 'judge' on "laugh in". my eyes glazed over about the sec story. yawn. the money just gets shifted from one crook to another.

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  5. Oh right! Starsky and Hutch! Good tv knowledge suzanne! I can't believe Sammy Davis Jr was on Laugh In....So that's where "here come the judge, here come the judge" comes from?

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  6. p.c..i may not know anything about the state of corporate art,,but by golly,,i DO know my tv! well,,at least tv from 1960-1990.

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