. . . for deceiving shareholders about the extent of losses at Merrill Lynch, the firm it saved from bankruptcy by purchasing in late 2008. Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed chair Ben Bernanke allegedly urged CEO Ken Lewis to continue with the deal when Lewis balked at the size of the losses. Lewis, whom shareholders ousted last year, has released a statement on the charges: “Mr. Lewis has been unfairly vilified by the political search for accountability for the financial meltdown.”

It seems that AG Cuomo is following in the populist footsteps of his predecessor, Eliot Spitzer. This case would seem to raise similar issues to those raised by the immunity-for-telecoms debate, in which the government protected the phone companies from lawsuits over their cooperation with various terrorist surveillance activities. Again, we have a lawsuit filed against a company who claimed to be acting on government orders and in the best interest of the country. Only this time, instead of the ACLU, it’s another government official bringing the charges. Spitzer’s anti–Wall Street cred paid dividends, until he was brought down by his own hubris. Cuomo is rumored to be just as ambitious; we’ll see if the same bet pays off twice.