The conference began on Tuesday and was scheduled to last two days, but the bank made a decision to cancel three sessions addressing US sanctions on Russia and Russia-US relations after some of the clients had started to complain about the tone of comments made by some speakers, the report said.
The head of the bank’s research division was even forced to call clients after the event to personally apologize for the content of Tuesday’s sessions, according to the report.
"All our external speakers are independent and the diverse views expressed are their own. We have apologized to those clients who voiced their displeasure at some of the views expressed," the report cited the Bank of America as saying in a statement.
According to one of the displeased attendees cited in the report, "it was more like Bank of Russia than Bank of America" as the whole event was overwhelmingly pro-Russian while another person described it as "relentlessly anti-Ukrainian."
Attendees also specifically mentioned Daniel Sheehan, Bank of America Securities' head of international relations, who criticized Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky during the event and described him as "a master manipulator and mimic" about whom there were "serious concerns" in the Biden administration, the report said.