A group that owns Bank of America Corp. stock is battling to oust CEO Ken Lewis and two other board members, claiming that the board of directors disregarded protecting the interests of shareholders during its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. in January, the Associated Press reported.

Finger Interest Number One Ltd., which owns about one-fifth of one percent of BofA stock, is asking shareholders to vote against re-electing Lewis as well as the board’s lead director, O. Temple Sloan, and director Jackie Ward at the annual shareholders meeting on April 29.

Jerry Finger, lead investor at Finger Interest, said the shareholders were repeatedly misled by the board and not provided proper disclosure about Merrill Lynch’s increasing losses until after the shareholder vote.

Finger Interest isn’t the only shareholder seeking to get rid of BofA’s top leadership. Two of the nation’s largest state pension funds, California Public Employees’ Retirement System and California State Teachers Retirement System, filed a joint motion yesterday to be designated as lead plaintiff in what they describe as an effort to protect the retirement security of more than 2 million members.

Another shareholder, Change to Win Investment Group, also is seeking to fire Lewis as a result of the Merrill Lynch deal, and said if the bank does not remove him, it will petition the shareholders to vote against Lewis’ re-election.

BofA officially acquired Merrill Lynch on Jan. 1. That same month, the company received $20 billion from the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program – on top of $25 billion it had already received – claiming it needed the money to help offset the losses it was absorbing from the Merrill acquisition.

However, Merrill paid out $3.6 billion in bonuses to employees just before the deal was complete and recorded a loss of more than $15 billion in the fourth quarter.