Here’s some logic for you: Bank of AmericaCEO Kenneth Lewis misleads investors about the Merrill Lynch merger, which results in a $33 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Who’ll pick up the tab? That’s right, the very same investors who were lied to in the first place.
If Cramer had it his way, Lewis would be opening his wallet right now, not shareholders. In fact, they should be the recipients of that settlement cash. At the most basic level, though, investors who reaped no benefit from the CEO’s actions shouldn’t have to pay the consequences. Why punish them twice, while management gets off scot-free?
“Until the exec gets punished, not the shareholders,” Cramer said, “I see no reason why this won’t happen again and again and again…”
Cramer’s charitable trust owns Bank of America.
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