Bank of America has every reason to want to keep a lid on the testimony about those controversial multi-billion dollar Merrill Lynch bonuses, given the ship was tanking. We've long suggested that the bank is in a lose-lose situation. It can basically argue it knew all about them (and didn't do much) or that it was ignorant. Either way, the bank looks really bad.

But now the New York Times discloses that Bank of America threatened to sue at least one Merrill Lynch executive for divulging information about the bonuses. The issue really has the New York AG Andrew Cuomo and Rep. Barney Frank worked up. This is shaping up to be another PR blight for Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis. Instead of trying to suppress information, which may be a lost cause, it may want to focus on crafting a message that portrays it accurately. He could use some PR advice on this.   

For more:
- here's the article 
- should banks open the books on bonuses? Video

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