Business Briefing

COURTS

No charges over Merrill purchase

The Securities and Exchange Commission declined to charge Bank of America Corp. executives regarding the company’s ill-fated purchase of Merrill Lynch last year.

The SEC said it concluded that the bank negligently failed to tell shareholders about billions of dollars in losses at Merrill before they approved the deal. But the agency said there was no evidence that executives deliberately withheld that information or sought to mislead shareholders.

The SEC, which has sued BofA for allegedly failing to disclose that $5.8 billion in bonuses to Merrill executives were part of the deal, asked U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff for permission to add charges for failing to disclose the losses. Rakoff rejected that request, saying the agency would have to file a separate suit to bring those charges.

Wells Fargo loses bid for tax refund

Wells Fargo & Co. lost a lawsuit seeking a $115-million federal tax refund for 2002 based on leases with transit agencies and tech firms.

The leases “lack economic substance and were intended only to reduce” the bank’s taxes, a federal judge wrote.

California loan broker sentenced

An unlicensed California mortgage broker was sentenced to 70 months in prison for falsifying applications that generated $40 million in loans to his clients. Jared Tornow, 34, was sentenced in Santa Ana, federal prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty in October to tax evasion and fraud.

-- times wire reports