BofA withheld material information prior to Merrill Lynch merger shareholder vote? - Fw: Billions of reserves lost: Were Temasek/GIC misled by banks or did they go in with eyes open?
To: President Nathan,
Further to my Feb 12th email (below), I am attaching an extract and a link to the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch Merger Investigation Report dated 23 Apr 2009 which revealed very material information (more losses amounting to billions purportedly known to BofA senior executives) was not disclosed to shareholders (including Singapore’s Temasek at that time, before such investments were divested which resulted in realised losses of billions of citizens’ reserves) prior to the merger vote.
Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems Temasek and the Singapore Government have been misled with the BofA-Merrill Lynch merger when material information was not disclosed to shareholders prior to the merger vote, so is Temasek (and the government as Temasek’s shareholder?) doing anything to seek redress?
I remember the share price of Bank of America took a severe beating only after it was learnt of the huge losses (including the undisclosed additional losses) in January 2009. I further understand Temasek had divested some or all of its BofA shares subsequently in February/March 2009 when its share price was at or near its lowest.
If the MPs do not deem it fit to raise this issue in Parliament for full accountability for these losses and possible redress where justified (which could/might have been prevented had full disclosure of material information been made available to all shareholders), I urge you, as the guardian of the citizens’ reserves, and on the citzens’ behalf, to order the government to explore all possible options to seek redress in recovering the losses from BofA and/or US Federal Reserve and/or US Treasury Department if they were found to have withheld material information from being disclosed to shareholders prior to the merger vote.
Yours faithfully,
Jeffrey Ho
NRIC: Sxxxxx76G
Addendum:
| “On September 15,2008, Merrill Lynch entered into a merger agreement with Bank of America….. The merger was approved by shareholders on December 5, 2008, and became effective on January 1, 2009…..The week after the shareholder vote - and days after Merrill Lynch set its bonuses Merrill Lynch quickly and quietly booked billions of dollars of additional losses. Merrill Lynch’s fourth quarter 2008 losses turned out to be $7 billion worse than it had projected prior to the merger vote and finalizing its bonuses. These additional losses, some of which had become known to Bank of America executives prior to the merger vote, were not disclosed to shareholders until mid-January 2009, two weeks after the merger had closed on January 1, 2009.” - New York Attorney-General Andrew Cuomo’s BofA-Merrill Lynch Merger Investigation Report dated 23 April 2009, link - http://www.oag.state.ny.us/media_center/2009/apr/pdfs/BofAmergLetter.pdf
| |
12 Feb 2009
Dear President Nathan,
I write to you as a citizen of Singapore and a stakeholder of the country’s reserves.
Just this week, we were told in Parliament by Senior Minister of State for Finance, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua that Temasek’s assets had lost some $58 billion in value since March 2008. (While no details were given for GIC, another report suggested that GIC’s assets might have lost even more - up to $200 billion - refer “Temasek takes severe hit”, The Nation, 9 Feb 2009, http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/02/09/headlines/headlines_30095260.php)
If The Nation’s figures on GIC are accurate, between both these two Sovereign Wealth Funds (”SWFs”), they had managed to lose some $258 billion of stakeholders’ money under their management thus far. (This is equivalent to losing some $70,879 of each citizen’s stake based on Wiki’s 3.64 million Singapore citizens, or for my family of four, some $283,516! Argh……)
As the Elected President, one of your primary duties is to safeguard the country’s and stakeholders’ reserves via the “second key”. (I wonder how the government managed to circumvent this second key safeguard to end up losing $258 billion unless you were a party to all those decisions that resulted in such losses, a fact we are not privy to). Therefore, you are entrusted with the responsibility to ensure the stakeholders’ reserves are prudently managed by the incumbent government - for the future of Singaporeans and generations to come.
Clearly, a grave mistake and repeatedly wrong judgements have been made by the government (via these 2 SWFs of Temasek and GIC) in the $258 billion loss which would include the billions invested in failed or failing banks like Citigroup, Merrill Lynch (now Bank of America), Barclays, UBS, etc. The question I’d like to find out is:
(1). Were they potentially misled by the banks into which they had invested (as evidenced by recent reports of class action suits by shareholders against banks which might have potentially misled them or withheld important information from them that might have affected their decisions)?; or
Dear President Nathan,
I write to you as a citizen of Singapore and a stakeholder of the country’s reserves.
Just this week, we were told in Parliament by Senior Minister of State for Finance, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua that Temasek’s assets had lost some $58 billion in value since March 2008. (While no details were given for GIC, another report suggested that GIC’s assets might have lost even more - up to $200 billion - refer “Temasek takes severe hit”, The Nation, 9 Feb 2009, http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/02/09/headlines/headlines_30095260.php)
If The Nation’s figures on GIC are accurate, between both these two Sovereign Wealth Funds (”SWFs”), they had managed to lose some $258 billion of stakeholders’ money under their management thus far. (This is equivalent to losing some $70,879 of each citizen’s stake based on Wiki’s 3.64 million Singapore citizens, or for my family of four, some $283,516! Argh……)
As the Elected President, one of your primary duties is to safeguard the country’s and stakeholders’ reserves via the “second key”. (I wonder how the government managed to circumvent this second key safeguard to end up losing $258 billion unless you were a party to all those decisions that resulted in such losses, a fact we are not privy to). Therefore, you are entrusted with the responsibility to ensure the stakeholders’ reserves are prudently managed by the incumbent government - for the future of Singaporeans and generations to come.
Clearly, a grave mistake and repeatedly wrong judgements have been made by the government (via these 2 SWFs of Temasek and GIC) in the $258 billion loss which would include the billions invested in failed or failing banks like Citigroup, Merrill Lynch (now Bank of America), Barclays, UBS, etc. The question I’d like to find out is:
(1). Were they potentially misled by the banks into which they had invested (as evidenced by recent reports of class action suits by shareholders against banks which might have potentially misled them or withheld important information from them that might have affected their decisions)?; or
(2). Did they go in with their eyes open, ie. knowing that there were billions or even trillions of toxic assets on the banks’ books (thus rendering them potentially insolvent, according to Prof Roubini and may others) but yet still went ahead to invest in them, for reasons known only to them?
If it’s (1) above, the government, via Temasek and/or GIC, as shareholders of these potentially insolvent banks, should consider taking legal action/joining in the class action against these banks and/or their officials, shouldn’t they?
But if it’s (2) above, then the government owes its duty to its citizens and stakeholders to come clean and explain why it went in to invest in these banks despite knowing the extent of toxic assets on their books - with a high likelihood of the investments totally wiped out.
Since I do not expect the government to volunteer the information, can you, as the President of Singapore and the de-facto “guardian” of the reserves, require the incumbent government to disclose such important information to its citizens and what actions have been taken or are to be taken so that such mistakes are learnt and not repeated in the future?
How can any competent government ever lose so much in a year what it took some 30 to 40 years of the pioneering and fully competent Old Guard ministers like Messrs Goh Keng Swee and Hon Sui Sen and the citizens’ hard work and sacrifices to build up?
(Note: While not affiliated to any political party, I am copying Mr Tan and the various Opposition (and potential Opposition) parties and party members in the hope that where I fail to get to the bottom of the fiasco via this email, they can continue to pursue them - whether in parliament and/or the cyberspace. Trust in the government, as we’re told to do “blindly”, is no longer in abundance amongst the citizens these days, unfortunately.)
If it’s (1) above, the government, via Temasek and/or GIC, as shareholders of these potentially insolvent banks, should consider taking legal action/joining in the class action against these banks and/or their officials, shouldn’t they?
But if it’s (2) above, then the government owes its duty to its citizens and stakeholders to come clean and explain why it went in to invest in these banks despite knowing the extent of toxic assets on their books - with a high likelihood of the investments totally wiped out.
Since I do not expect the government to volunteer the information, can you, as the President of Singapore and the de-facto “guardian” of the reserves, require the incumbent government to disclose such important information to its citizens and what actions have been taken or are to be taken so that such mistakes are learnt and not repeated in the future?
How can any competent government ever lose so much in a year what it took some 30 to 40 years of the pioneering and fully competent Old Guard ministers like Messrs Goh Keng Swee and Hon Sui Sen and the citizens’ hard work and sacrifices to build up?
(Note: While not affiliated to any political party, I am copying Mr Tan and the various Opposition (and potential Opposition) parties and party members in the hope that where I fail to get to the bottom of the fiasco via this email, they can continue to pursue them - whether in parliament and/or the cyberspace. Trust in the government, as we’re told to do “blindly”, is no longer in abundance amongst the citizens these days, unfortunately.)
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Yours faithfully,
Jeffrey Ho
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=30187.1
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=30187.1
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