Ken Lewis

Dec. 14, 2009 — -- As president of the Bank of America, Ken Lewis came to be the poster boy for the country's despised corporate royalty, whose greed and arrogance helped lead the United States into the worst recession since the Great Depression.

Leading financial analysts say Lewis destroyed Bank of America, the New York attorney general claims he misled stockholders and federal regulators, and he leaves his job at the end of the year with his once finely-tuned reputation in tatters.

As his bank was forced to take $48 billon in taxpayer money to stay in business, Lewis continued his pampered life style. Lewis flew in a private jet to New York to be questioned by investigators for New York attorney general Anthony Cuomo, as ABC News cameras saw his underlings roll out a red carpet for his brief walk between luxury jet and luxury limousine.

His approval of billions of dollars in bonuses for executives at the newly purchased Merrill Lynch outraged shareholders who were never told of the huge losses that Bank of America would be assuming in its purchase of Merrill.

In one of his final acts, Lewis announced Bank of America would pay back the entire $45 billon in federal money that had bailed out his bank.

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