MERRILL LYNCH STOCKBROKER MISCONDUCT

Merrill Lynch is one of the largest brokerage firms in the world; it has more than 15,000 brokers.  In September 2008, in the midst of the financial collapse that hit Wall Street, Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America. Merrill Lynch subsequently received billions of dollars from the insurance arrangements it had made with AIG, including $6.8 billion provided by the United States taxpayers to help bail out AIG. During this period, Merrill Lynch paid bonuses to its executives that totaled $3.6 billion, approximately one-third of the money they received from the TARP bailout.

Despite the unmatched size of its operations, and perhaps because of them, Merrill Lynch has repeatedly been found not to have properly supervised the activities of its brokers. The company has paid many millions of dollars in arbitrations brought against Merrill Lynch brokers by their customers.