Yesterday, in “reluctantly” approving Bank of America’s $150 million settlement with the SEC over lack of transparency to shareholders upon their acquisition of Merrill Lynch, Oscar Wilde–quoting federal judge Jed Rakoff sounded hopeful that the recent suit filed by Andrew Cuomo against the bank might succeed in holding executives at the bank accountable. But the onetime English major couldn’t help but take a dig at the language the notoriously florid Bonus Buster used in his complaint, in particular the passage in which Cuomo thunderously concludes, “Bank of America’s management thought of itself as too big to play by the rules and, just as disturbingly, too big to tell the truth.” “Even in an era of purple prose, such language may seem deepest violet,” the judge wrote. Now that’s a judgment.
