Merrill Lynch 'Training Sessions' Continue at the Ritz
You'd think Merrill Lynch executives would have learned their lesson by now. Just two weeks after getting chastised in the press for sending employees down to the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando for a "training event"—and despite all the negative PR the firm has sustained in recent weeks, including revelations about corporate pay just today—a big group of Merrill employees are now resting comfortably by the pool. Again. A tipster informed us that Merrill was conducting yet another warm-weather event at the fancy Orlando hotel today. We called the hotel, asked for the front desk, and then requested to be connected to the conference room where the Merrill Lynch conference was taking place. "Global Wealth Management," said the kindly woman who answered the phone before confirming to us that a Merrill event was, in fact, taking place at the hotel. (Alas, she wouldn't say how many Merrill employees were on hand for the conference, or if any taxpayer-funded golf events were on the agenda today.) But we're guessing Andrew Cuomo will be terribly disappointed to hear he wasn't invited.