Judge stops Las Vegas project

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NEW YORK (AP) — A judge Wednesday balked at signing off on a $33 million proposed settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of America Corp. over executive bonuses.

Bank of America on Monday agreed to pay the penalty to settle government charges that it misled investors about Merrill Lynch’s plans to pay bonuses to its executives.

In seeking approval to buy Merrill, Bank of America told investors that Merrill would not pay year-end bonuses without Bank of America’s consent. But in its complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the SEC said Bank of America had already authorized New York-based Merrill to pay up to $5.8 billion in bonuses and didn’t share that information with shareholders.

That rendered a statement Bank of America mailed to 283,000 shareholders of both companies about the Merrill deal “materially false and misleading,” the SEC contends.

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