banks such as merrill lynch took part in the accounting fraud by enron.
banks such as merrill lynch took part in the accounting fraud by?
enron
in 2004 convictions of merrill executives marked the only instance in the enron investigation where the government criminally charged any officials from the banks and securities firms that allegedly helped the energy giant execute its accounting fraud. the case revolved around a 1999 transaction involving merrill, enron and the sale of some electricity-producing barges off the coast of nigeria. the charges alleged that the 1999 sale of an interest in nigerian energy barges by an enron entity to merrill lynch was a sham that allowed enron to illegally book about $12 million in pretax profit, when in fact there was no real sale and no real profit.
merrill lynch & co.
merrill lynch brokers were told to refer customers with less than $250,000 in investments to merrill edge. the intent was for the brokers to focus on wealthier investors and for merrill edge to reciprocate by sending customer with more than $250,000 in investments to merrill lynch. in 2015, the merrill lynch broker incentive system changed to give brokers no money for managing accounts less than $250,000. in 2014, merrill edge referred 30,000 customers to merrill lynch and u.s. trust. converted referrals gave merrill lynch an additional $4 billion to manage, which when apportioned among merrill lynch's 14,000 advisers is roughly $285,700 and two referrals per adviser. when referred to merrill lynch, merrill edge's customers sometimes do not migrate their accounts because of the higher costs for trades.
merrill edge