"The agency agreed to a settlement that was 'favorable' to the bank 'because of the nation's perilous economic situation at the time' and the fact that it had received billions of dollars in taxpayer aid, according to the report by the SEC's inspector general. Specifically, during settlement negotiations, Bank of America won relief from sanctions that could have hurt its investment banking business."

One reason the SEC brought suit against BofA was that the bank concealed that $6 billion in bonuses was to be paid to Merrill Lynch execs at the end of 2008, just prior to the acquisition being finalized — a story that Farrell broke in January 2009.  

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Part One, Greg Farrell Explains How One Man Brought Down Merrill Lynch:

Part Two, The Human Resources Department At Bank Of America Was Like The "Gestapo": Part Three, Former Merrill Lynch Employee Demands To Know: Why Is Greg Fleming Still A Hero After The Demise Of Merrill Lynch?:

Part Four: Why The Fall Of Merrill Lynch Hurt Stan O’Neal More Than John Thain

(Editor's note: This post was added to substantially, adding three additional videos from the one that was originally the focus of the post.)

"[Author Greg] Farrell tells a story based on hundreds of hours of interviews that builds like a hurricane. A storm that began with a mounting pile of of toxic debt that ultimately resulted in massive losses and [CEO Stan] O’Neal’s ouster, paused briefly after [following CEO John] Thain took over in December 2007 and set about raising billions in capital …

"The strength of “Crash Of The Titans” comes in the nearly 200 pages that detail that weekend, when Merrill would agree to a BofA takeover, and the months that followed before Thain’s departure from the combined company in January amid criticism over bonuses paid out by the firm before the deal closed, a story that Farrell broke at the FT."

You can read more of his review here.

"As is indicated by the subtitle, no one really comes off well in Crash of the Titans: Greed, Hubris, The Fall of Merrill Lynch and the Near-Collapse of Bank of America, the latest financial-crisis snuff book from FT reporter Greg Farrell.

From the CEOs to the administrative assistants, Crash is populated with singularly awful individuals who are power-hungry, clueless, conniving — or in most cases, all three. They're cartoon villains in the Wall Street mode, and just as entertaining. Unfortunately, they're all too real."

One of those characters is J. Steele Alphin, the head of human resources at Bank of America, of whom she writes:

"As you might imagine, Bank of America is filled with even more awful people. Among the clan is a man so awesomely awful as to bring a spot of relief to the proceedings — a man known by the comically sinister name of J. Steele Alphin."

As the excerpt included in New York's post reveals, he is also BofA's Wolfman …

"On the morning of Friday, October 5, the firm's top finance people and O'Neal huddled to go over the final language that would be part of the earnings warning sent out just after 9 a.m. The finance group, headed by CFO Jeff Edwards, had come up with the $4.5 billion number for the write-down on the firm's CDO [collateral debt obligations] portfolio. Once the language was in place, the group dispersed, in the belief that the work was done.

But after a subsequent discussion involving Gary Carlin, who headed Merrill's internal controls, Edwards and the investor relations people decided to err on the side of caution and tell investors that the CDO write-downs related to an 'incremental' impact in the quarter. At 9:06 a.m., the announcement went out on the wires. Sometime around 9:07 a.m., O'Neal called Eric Heaton, the treasurer, and screamed at him, demanding to know who had inserted the word 'incremental' in the release. Normally a man of calm and businesslike demeanor, O'Neal laced his tirade with derivatives of the word 'fuck,' which seemed out of character. Then the CEO turned his fury on Edwards, unleashing another fusillade of f-bombs on the CFO, whom he blamed for adding the word 'incremental.' The earnings warning was supposed to let investors know that Merrill Lynch was on top of its problems, O'Neal hollered. Using a qualifier like 'incremental' suggested that the firm didn't even know how bad its problems were."

Andrew Leonard

" … what emerges from [author Greg ]Farrell's account is a grittier story zeroing in on the motivations driving the individual players — a classic tale of self-interest, in which chances for corporate advancement and the desire for a big bonus trump everything else. There's nothing of great surprise to be learned here — it surely isn't newsworthy that bankers are motivated by money. But there's great value to be gained in the detail that Farrell reveals, particularly as it applies to one of the storylines that most outraged the general public in 2009 — the single-minded focus that Merrill Lynch executives, from [then CEO John] Thain on down, devoted to getting their bonuses, even as the economy was crashing and their own firm was losing billions of dollars a quarter."

To read the full review, click here.

Separately, Farrell talks about the book on TheStreet.com's "Real Story with Gregg Greenberg," in this podcast. Greenberg (who covered the Martha Stewart trial with Farrell, when Farrell was at USA Today), says: "I haven't really gotten the definitive story on Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, until now." (The interview begins at the 26:15 mark.)

"A new book by Financial Times journalist Greg Farrell — “Crash of the Titans: Greed, Hubris, the Fall of Merrill Lynch, and the Near-Collapse of Bank of America” — hashes out the details of Merrill’s final weekend, the leadup to the brokerage’s trauma and the aftermath for Bank of America.

During the frantic weekend, teams from Merrill and Bank of America were camped out on separate floors of law firm Wachtell Lipton. Merrill executives, including President Greg Fleming and Pete Kelly, a top in-house lawyer, were weighing how to negotiate the sale of their firm."

Read the full excerpt here (no password required).

"[Author Greg] Farrell tells what really caused the demise [of Merrill Lynch] and how Stan O'Neal, Merrill's CEO, reached out to Warren Buffett for help. He traces how O'Neal's successor, John Thain, was forced to sell to Bank of America and dishes on the clash — "hillbillies" vs. "suits" — between Bank of America executives in Charlotte and their new Wall Street partners."