New York Attorney General Cuomo writes a letter to Congress.
He is not amused at American International Group.
Cuomo, in his capacity as overseer on NY insurance companies has been making enquiries, and kindly asked AIG not to distribute bonuses to its finance group last year out of the deferred compensation fund, which they agreed to, something to do with de facto bankrupt companies not being allowed to pay bonuses,
so they paid to bonuses out of the retention fund instead
duh.
Cuomo would like to know who and how much.
AIG is stalling.
NY State lawyers seem somewhat dubious about the legality of these bonuses and would like to hear more. They are particularly intrigued by the fact that the 2008 contracts guaranteed bonuses at least as large as the 2007 bonuses, even though AIG (Financial Group) surely knew at the time that their business was maybe not quite performing as well.
73 people received retention bonuses of over $1 million.
11 of these have left AIG, including one who got a $4.6 million bonus.
I'm sure they paid the retention bonus back when they left, right?
Letter is here it is worth a read
Sounds like Cuomo intends to name names etc and so forth.
In the mean time, AIG is apparently increasing corporate security.
Is it unusual to see such blatant theft in public.
It will be interesting to see if they get away with it.
As a matter of principle of policy this could be the lynchpin episode in the sordid mess that the financiers made.
I like to think some line will be held somewhere and that we collectively won't just continue to roll over and let the bastards walk away.
Again.
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Talking Points Memo reported yesterday that the FBI and the UK authorities (AIG's financial products division is based in London) have active investigations into AIG. As usual, the FBI will neither confirm nor deny that they are investigating.
Geithner and Summers have not handled this well. I expect them to get out of Washington sometime this summer, a few steps ahead of the mob bringing tar and feathers.
While we're on the topic of returning money spent by AIG, anyone want to estimate the probability that Barry Obama will return the $107332 he received in campaign contributions from said financial institution? How about Chuckie Schumer's $111875? Or Max Baucus's $90000? Or Hillary's $59515? And let's not forget the $15750 given to AGW crusader and self-proclaimed internet creator Al Gore.
Anyone?
Lest you think I'm picking on Democrats, I'll also point out that George W. Bush received $200560, John Sununu $69049 and Rudy Giuliani $50250, among many others.
Any wonder this company was bailed out?