This whole John Thain, Ken Lewis Rumble in the Bronx has been thrilling but clearly there are lesser-known, more hilariously-named cast members to speak of. Let's start with Steele Alphin, chief administrative officer at Bank of America, and essentially Lewis's right hand guy. He also served as Thain's ambassador into the BAC world. For instance, we're told it was Alphin who set the aggregated compensation level for Merrill bonuses, and convinced Thain to change the cash/stock breakdown from 60/40 to 70/30, because it would help BAC's balance sheet (the cash coming from MER, the stock coming from BAC). Oh, and Steele's also the one who can say definitively, despite attempts to leak stories to the contrary, that Thain never asked, per se, for a $10 million bonus.