CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – Bank of America Corp. has apparently begun firing employees suspected of having been involved in improper mutual fund trading which is being investigated by New York stateAttorney General Eliot Spitzer.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the bank has dismissed Charles Bryceland, the former head of a brokerage and private-banking office that catered to wealthy clients in New York.
The Charlotte-based bank had no comment on the report even when told that a woman answering the phone Thursday in Bryceland’s New York office said “He is no longer with the firm.”
A second employee named in the investigation, broker Theodore Sihpol, is “no longer with the company,” according to a woman who answered the phone Thursday at the bank’s New York brokerage. Sihpol reported to Bryceland.
“We will make an announcement when there is a significant development,” bank spokesman Bob Stickler said Thursday. “We have already said we will act swiftly, but also thoroughly and fairly.”
Last week, Spitzer filed documents alleging that a New Jersey hedge fund, Canary Capital Partners LLC, and its manager, Edward Stern, worked with Bank of America and other mutual-fund companies to pursue improper trading strategies.
Those named by Spitzer in the complaint included Bryceland, Sihpol and two other Bank of America employees.
Ken Lewis, the bank’s chairman and chief executive, said last week that he would punish any employees involved in improper trading.
In a memo sent last Friday to the bank’s 134,000 employees, Lewis said the bank had launched its own investigation. He said he believed the number of employees involved in wrongdoing, if any, was “very, very small” and that any actions against them would “probably take a few days.”
Bank of America said this week it would make restitution to fundholders if an analysis finds investors suffered a loss. Canary has agreed to pay $40 million to settle the allegations without admitting or denying wrongdoing.
Shares of Bank of America rose 73 cents, or nearly 1 percent, to close at $75.60 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
