Bank of America's role in the massive losses at Merrill Lynch has been hotly debated. Shareholder suits have accused Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis of withholding information about a huge loss in the last quarter of 2008 ahead of a vote to approve the deal on December 5.

The Financial Times weighs in with a piece revealing that Bank of America was very involved with Merrill's Financial team in December, but the activity seems to have occurred toward the end of the month, when Lewis was starting to have second thoughts. He dispatched Neil Cotty, chief accounting officer, to work with Merrill executives closely on financial matters. Cotty was the one to ultimately sign off on the numbers. Recall Lewis threatened to walk away from the deal unless the government provided support, which it did.

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