Investors including Finger, who led a proxy fight that helped drive Lewis into retirement at the end of 2009, have said that the former CEO overpaid while seeking to expand Bank of America's operations. Lewis agreed to pay $US29 a share for Merrill Lynch & Co the weekend before Lehman Brothers Holdings collapsed in 2008. The $US50 billion deal was a "crazy price," billionaire investor Warren Buffett told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, according to remarks released this month.