BAC owes the taxpayer big and doesn't want to pay: Big surprise

*this is rich. You agree to buy Merrill Lynch and ask us for cash (after all, we gave it to Jamie Dimon why not Lewis and Thain?) and we say OK but you will owe us a fee, the same fees (not really cause we're taxpayers and we always get bent over so we get less) that you would charge some client for the use or non use (cause banks get the fees regardless of whether you use the money or not, it's called a line of credit) of that money, and now you don't want to pay cause you didn't use it (yeah right). Gee, sound familiar? Bet California is thinking the exact same thing.

Bank of America Said to Balk at Paying Fee to U.S. for Backstop
By David Mildenberg and Rebecca Christie

July 13 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp. is trying to avoid paying billions of dollars in fees to U.S. taxpayers for guarantees against losses at Merrill Lynch & Co., saying the rescue agreement was never signed and the funding never used.

Regulators contend Bank of America owes at least part of a $4 billion fee it agreed to pay in January -- even without a completed legal document -- because the company benefited from implied U.S. backing on about $118 billion of Merrill Lynch assets, such as mortgage-backed bonds, people familiar with the matter said. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank says it owes the Treasury nothing, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the negotiations are confidential.

Bank of America, ranked first by assets and deposits in the U.S., “got a moral commitment for insurance without tendering a check, so it appears they got something for nothing,” said Representative Brad Sherman, a California Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee. “If the government takes the risk, the government needs to be paid.”

Both sides agree the accord was never signed and the funding went untapped, the people said. Bank spokesman Scott Silvestri and Treasury’s Andrew Williams declined to comment.

*I want to see those documents for myself. Didn't Geithner say we had to pay the AIG bonus's because we are a country of laws and need to honor contracts? Well in America a contract has to have consideration and if I give you $100b and you receive a benefit from it (here it is the ability to sleep at night) and you give me a promise that your bank is solvent and will someday return a profit so you Uncle Sam can expect to get that cashola back, then thats a contract.



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PS: Dick Bove is a horses ARSE!