Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he wants to question the role of Bank of America Corp. directors in the “economic debacle of a generation.”

Cuomo subpoenaed five board members in a probe of the bank’s purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co., a person close to the investigation said yesterday. While Cuomo didn’t comment on subpoenas during a press conference today, he said he has specific questions about what the board was told by management of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank.

“We went through an economic debacle of a generation,” Cuomo said about his interest in probing actions by boards of directors. “What happened? How did it happen? What did we learn and how are sure it’s not going to happen again? That’s what I’m thinking about here.”

Bank of America bought Merrill on Jan. 1 for $29 billion including preferred shares after the world’s biggest brokerage firm sought a partner during the same September weekend in which Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed. Shareholders and regulators have accused Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis of failing to disclose Merrill’s mounting losses and $3.6 billion in bonus payments before the sale was approved.

The board members will be asked to testify under oath, the person said. The Wall Street Journal reported the five directors are Thomas May, chief executive officer of NStar; William Barnet III, a Spartanburg, South Carolina, developer; retired Morehouse College President Walter Massey; Boston investment firm owner John Collins; and retired Army General Tommy Franks. Barnet, Collins and Franks resigned from the board this year.

The bank will “cooperate with the attorney general’s office as we maintain that there is no basis for charges against either the company or individual members of the management team,” according to a statement from Bank of America.

To contact the reporters on this story: David Mildenberg in Charlotte at dmildenberg@bloomberg.net; Karen Freifeld in New York at kfreifeld@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 17, 2009 14:24 EDT