for the fourth quarter of 2008. Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis said that, without $138 billion in government assistance, including the infusion of $20 billion from the federal government, he would have pulled out of the Merrill deal, which had been approved by Bank of America shareholders in early December. People close to Lewis say his relationship with Thain was strained by Merrill's massive fourth quarter loss. Lewis himself faced criticism for rushing to buy Merrill for $28 billion after less than two days of due diligence. On January 22, 2009, on CNBC's The Call, Charlie Gasparino said that Thain was going to meet Lewis later in the day. Gasparino added that Thain's future at Bank of America was in doubt, although it was not certain whether he would be leaving. Gasparino then said that Thain spent $1.22 million to refurbish his office, shortly after he had been named as CEO of Merrill in January 2008. Merrill was still an independent firm at the time, and some analysts predicted that, with Thain as new CEO, the company would be back on track for a strong performance in the midst of disappointing results on Wall Street. The tension between Thain and Lewis had been building since mid-December and culminated on January 22, 2009 when Lewis flew to New York to meet with Thain. After a 15-minute conversation between the two men, Thain agreed to resign. Nelson Chai, Merrill's last CFO prior to its merger, was initially slated to relocate to Hong Kong to head Bank of America's Asia business. but Chai departed from BofA in February, just two weeks after the ouster of Thain, and was replaced by Ki-Myung Hong. Thain and Chai's departures left just one other member of Merrill's management team at the combined company, Tom Montag as head of sales and trading. Criticism of excessive compensation On January 23, 2009, President Obama referred to John Thain by saying "the reports that we’ve seen over the last couple of days about companies that have received taxpayer assistance then going out and renovating bathrooms or offices or in other ways not managing those dollars appropriately." Obama's press secretary Robert Gibbs also said taxpayer money shouldn't go to "line the pockets of people" who've gotten financial assistance. "The American people need to be greatly assured that their hard-earned money is not going to the bonuses or the remodeling of an