If a company commits a fraud it can be legally liable for the result of that fraud, that liability can include (in fact most often consists of) financial liability. It is both legal and typical for any acquirer of that company to inherit the financial liability. Doing so is not, and does not even vaguely resemble, a continuation of the fraud.
In a sense Bank of America isn't "someone else", when it bought Countrywide Financial" it assumed the assets and liabilities and in a certain sense became Countrywide Financial (but not just Countrywide, it obviously has its previous assets, responsibilities, contracts etc.)
The CEO may or may not be liberal, either way its rather irrelevant to the above point. If he is, than its possible that his partisan or ideological positions helped encourage him to buy Countrywide. To the extent that is true its a disservice to the shareholders of Bank of America, but it doesn't change the legal status involved in buying out another company. Whether it was just a mistake, or whether Moynihan intentionally put other interests ahead of his fiduciary duty, BoA still inherits Countrywide's liabilities. |
