Bank of American won't repay $4B to us taxpayers since it was an "oral agreement"

From Forbes, not from The Onion:

...has argued that it doesn't need to pay the Treasury back because it was simply an oral agreement.

Things looked differently nine months ago.

During the company's fourth-quarter conference call, which was held on Jan. 16, Chief Executive Ken Lewis announced BofA received a federal guarantee for $118 billion of toxic assets, most of which were accrued in its acquisition of Merrill Lynch, in addition to the $20 billion it received to complete the deal. (See "Ken Lewis Is Getting Lonely.") Lewis said the guarantee was worth $4 billion and that it was essentially insurance protection.

Gimmie a B. Gimmie a O. Gimmie a Y. Gimmie a C...