"As strange as it may seem, Vladimir Putin, the bare-chested, horse riding tiger hunter, is about to be taken down by a bunch of accountants."Unless they're from PWC or BoA!!!!!
"The accounting mistake stemmed from Merrill Lynch, the Wall Street giant that Bank of America acquired during the financial crisis. The bank agreed to the deal, believing it had found a bargain, but Merrill had wide-ranging problems, which it bequeathed to Bank of America.As part of that acquisition, Bank of America assumed bonds that Merrill had issued, including a $60 billion portfolio of so-called structured notes.
When Bank of America put the notes on its own balance sheet, it did so at a discount to their original value. Bank of America has since paid off many of the notes or bought them back from investors. When these payouts were higher than the value at which Bank of America assumed the notes, the bank booked a loss because it was paying out more money than its balance sheet said the bank owed.
Bank of America’s capital should have been reduced by these losses. But instead, and in error, the bank did not do that, which artificially lifted its capital over several years. In the corrected numbers released on Monday, the bank’s capital is now lower because it includes the realized losses"
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bank-america-finds-mistake-4-131850450.html
