I looks like things are getting a little ugly in the corporate divorce between former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain and Bank of America chief Ken Lewis.
Last week, Thain, who once was considered in some circles to be Lewis’ successor at BofA, resigned from his Merrill post amid reports that he awarded bonuses to himself and others at Merrill and ordered a cost renovation of his office before the merger between his troubled firm and BofA was completed.
An internal memo by Thain that was released today certainly gives the appearance that Lewis and other BofA execs weren’t that much in the dark regarding Merrill’s balance sheet and Thain’s other missteps during the merger of the investment bank with the nation’s largest commercial bank, according to a Wall Street Journal blog.
Maybe it’s an attempt by Thain to reverse the public damage he’s suffered to his reputation.
But it certainly increases the doubt that Lewis and BofA were completely blind to what was happening at Merrill in its final days of independence.