Bank of America Corp's Chief Risk Officer Greg Curl is under scrutiny by New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo's office in connection with the probe of the bank's merger with Merrill Lynch, the New York Times reported.

Cuomo's office has contacted several BofA lawyers in the last two weeks with concerns about Curl's testimony given last month, the paper said.

Curl, spokesmen for Bank of America and Cuomo's office did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

Curl, who negotiated the bank's Troubled Asset Relief Program aid repayment, is considered a favorite by analysts to replace retiring Chief Executive Ken Lewis.

Curl testified about a phone conversation he had with a lawyer at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz on December 3 about the disclosure of Merrill's losses, the paper said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The bank declined to disclose the content of conversations held with Wachtell, citing privacy privileges, the paper said.

BofA later waived these privileges, however, and when it opened its legal records to Cuomo's staff, no log emerged proving that the phone call cited by Curl had taken place, the paper reported.

(Reporting by Santosh Nadgir in Bangalore and Elinor Comlay and Steve Eder in New York; Editing by Derek Caney)

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