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"He violated his duty to protect shareholders in order to protect himself, and now shareholders are shouldering the burden of those consequences," CtW Investment Group's Michael Garland told Dealscape. "Seems like Ken Lewis has changed his story. Previously Mr. Lewis has stated unambiguously that Bank of America was not aware of the losses at Merrill Lynch until after the Dec. 5 shareholder vote. Now he states differently. I think this will certainly strengthen our lawsuit," Jonathan Finger of Finger Interests Number One Ltd. told Dealscape. Both Finger and CtW Investment Group along with Proxy Governance, are lobbying fellow shareholders to oust CEO Ken Lewis, l The Journal report basically states that Ken Lewis kept mum on the details of the Merrill Lynch & Co. deal after apparently being pressured by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in order to keep his job. Here's a preview: Q: Were you instructed not to tell your shareholders what the transaction was going to be? A: I was instructed that 'We do not want a public disclosure.' Q: Who said that to you? A: Paulson... Q: Had it been up to you would you [have] made the disclosure? A: It wasn't up to me. Q: Had it been up to you. A: It wasn't. Lewis believed Paulson and Bernanke would remove him and the board if the merger was not completed and that it might not be in the best interest of shareholder. "I can't recall if he said, 'We would remove the board and management if you called it [off]' or if he said 'we would do it if you intended to.' I don't remember which one it was," Mr. Lewis said in the transcript. "I said, 'Hank, let's de-escalate this for a while. Let me talk to our board.' " A press release by shareholder CtW states: "Assuming Mr. Lewis's version of the Paulson and Bernanke discussions is accurate, he and his board violated their legal duties to shareholders in order to protect their own employment interests. Their failure to provide timely disclosure of Merrill's troubled condition ultimately had devastating consequences for shareholders." Finger, who recently appeared on The Deal's video interview series Inside The Deal, said after reading the Journal's report: Finger adds that Lewis should have offered his resignation rather than sacrificing shareholder interests. "In their endless drive for 'footprint, size and market share,' " he said, "they felt compelled to catch a falling guillotine, putting the company and shareholders in harms way during a precarious time in the financial markets." See videos and related stories below. - Maria Woehr Follow me on twitter @newsgirlmw
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Bank of America Corp.'s (NYSE:BAC) shareholders are reacting to a transcript of Ken Lewis' testimony to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's investigation into the bonus payments at BofA that was leaked to 
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