It looks like Andrew Cuomo holds all the cards. He now has in hand the names of the recipients of both of the corporate payouts that have provoked all that populist rage lately.
A judge earlier this week ruled that Bank of America had to turn over the list of names of the 200 highest-paid Merrill Lynch bonus recipients, that the New York Attorney General has been seeking. According to reports, B of A, which now owns Merrill, did so yesterday.
Cuomo had also sent a separate subpoena to AIG, seeking the list of more than 400 employees who received even more controversial payments. Earlier this week, AIG CEO Ed Liddy had cited concerns about the safety of their employees in declining to immediately comply with the subpoeana. But the Merrill court ruling appeared to leave AIG without a legal leg to stand on, and yesterday, Cuomo’s office announced that it had the AIG names, too, in hand.
That puts Cuomo, who’s considered a likely candidate for governor next year, in an enviable position.
Separately, one AIG exec, Doug Poling, said through a spokesman that he would return his $6 million bonus “because it’s the correct thing to do.”