NYP: Bove: Cuomo is more to blame for Wall Street's meltdown, not BofA's Lewis
5:30 PM, February 5, 2010 ? By MARK DECAMBRE
Bank analyst Dick Bove had some choice words today for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the fraud charges he filed against Bank of America.
A day after Cuomo filed fraud charges against BofA, ex-CEO Ken Lewis and former CFO Joe Price for allegedly misleading investors about losses at Merrill Lynch in order to complete its merger, Bove in a research note questioned Cuomo's populist cred, saying Cuomo might have played a bigger role in Wall Street's implosion than Lewis ever did.
"When Andrew Cuomo, the current attorney general of New York, was the secretary of the [Department of] Housing & Urban Development, he was was instrumental in forcing the [government-sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] to take on more alt-A mortgages," wrote Bove, who works at Rochdale Securities.
"He was a major advocate for subprime lending," he continued. "Many thought that his actions ultimately led to the collapse of the GSEs and untold suffering to possibly millions of American households," he said.
"In sum, the actions of Andrew Cuomo and the [Securities and Exchange Commission] cost billions and untold suffering. The actions of Bank of America resulted in benefits to all involved,"
Bove hasn't been shy in expressing his fondness for Lewis and his leadership at BofA, praising Lewis for not getting BofA mixed up in the toxic-mortgage mess that has brought down some of BofA's peers and for BofA coming to Uncle Sam's rescue by buying Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial.
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