The gist of the law suit is not new and Cuomo has already voiced most of the allegations contained in the suit, namely that Bank of America's management intentionally failed to disclose Merrill's losses of $16 billion to BoA shareholders in December 2008 so that a shareholder vote to approve the merger would sail through. The law suit goes on to state that, once the shareholders had approved the deal, the BoA management used this to benefit from $20 billion in taxpayer aid. "The bank's management cannot explain why they did not disclose Merrill's massive losses to shareholders even though the merger with Merrill would have threatened the bank's very existence if there had been no taxpayer bailout," said the law suit. Cuomo once again highlighted the $3.57 billion of bonuses that Merrill paid in December 2008, "distributed in a manner that was completely inconsistent with Merrill's prior practice and in the worst year in Merrill's history".