Andrew Cuomo is indefatigable! Following up on his letter on Friday and his long-running promise to get Bank of America to hand over the information about who got how much in bonuses last year “by any means necessary,” the Bonus Buster has penned a new poison-pen letter to BofA CEO Ken Lewis, and this one has extra poison, in the form of the swishy, portly signature of House Banking Committee chairman Barney Frank.
As befits this dynamic duo, the missive is full of passionate! wording! intended to let the suits down in North Carolina know their secrecy will not stand. “Taxpayers who are footing the bill obviously demand accountability and want to know who received these funds and why,” it says at one point, and ends with a signature Buster-ian flourish:
“Your refusal to reveal compensation information fuels distrust and cynicism at a most sensitive time.”
Iced. Bank of America has said, of course, that they will give Cuomo the bonus data as long as it’s not made public, but there is no justice, i.e. glory, in that. The Bonus Buster wants Lewis et al brought to their knees, and he would rather pen letters every day until his hand grows gnarled and his fingers bleed (or at least, the fingers of his secretary would bleed, after which he’d of course buy her Band-Aids, maybe even the medicated kind). Not because the letters themselves are likely to make Bank of America be like, “FINE. HAVE IT.” but because the sheer act of writing them and the ensuing press coverage reminds everyone BofA is more than likely guilty of something and, more important, Andrew Cuomo is doing something about it. He’s already dreamed up the closing line for the next one: “You disgust me.”
Cuomo, Frank Demand BofA Bonus Data [Dealbook/NYT]
