UPDATE 3-Merrill 'secretly' moved up bonus payments-Cuomo

(Adds Lewis comments in congressional testimony, additional comment from attorney general's office about seeking information from wider group of banks)

By Joseph A. Giannone

NEW YORK, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch "secretly" accelerated bonus payments last year and gave at least $1 million to each of nearly 700 employees, even as the brokerage was amassing billions of dollars in losses, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a letter to U.S. Rep. Barney Frank.

Merrill executives have drawn fire because they paid 2008 performance bonuses in December, earlier than usual and even as Merrill would reveal $15.3 billion of fourth-quarter losses by Jan. 16.

The losses, the timing of the bonuses and the uproar over $1.2 million spent on decorating the office of Merrill Chief Executive John Thain led to the ouster of Thain by Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), which acquired Merrill last month.

Cuomo, who began questioning bonus plans in October after nine banks received $125 billion of U.S. Treasury capital injections, said in the Feb. 10 letter obtained by Reuters that Merrill "secretly and prematurely" paid $3.6 billion of bonuses in December so that taxpayers would foot the bill.

"It appears that instead of disclosing their bonus plans in a transparent way as requested by my office, Merrill Lynch secretly moved up the planned date to allocate bonuses and then richly rewarded their failed executives," Cuomo wrote.

The top four Merrill recipients received a combined $121 million; the next four received a combined $62 million; and the next six received a combined $66 million, according to Cuomo.

At Merrill, 696 employees each received at least $1 million, and the top 149 executives received a total of $858 million, Cuomo wrote.