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American International Group Inc. (AIG)


Self Description

January 2008: "American International Group, Inc. (AIG), a world leader in insurance and financial services, is the leading international insurance organization with operations in more than 130 countries and jurisdictions. AIG companies serve commercial, institutional and individual customers through the most extensive worldwide property-casualty and life insurance networks of any insurer. In addition, AIG companies are leading providers of retirement services, financial services and asset management around the world. AIG's common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, as well as the stock exchanges in Ireland and Tokyo."

http://www.aig.com/About-aig_20_19308.html

September 2002: "AIG is the leading U.S.-based international insurance and financial services organization and the largest underwriter of commercial and industrial insurance in the United States. Its member companies write a wide range of commercial, personal and life insurance products through a variety of distribution channels in approximately 130 countries and jurisdictions throughout the world."

http://www.aig.com/

Third-Party Descriptions

December 2012: "Collecting data on property tax abatements is the most difficult because only a handful of states track the amounts given by cities and counties. Among them is New York, where businesses save an estimated $1.1 billion a year in property taxes. The American International Group, the insurance company at the center of the 2008 financial crisis, continued to benefit from a $23.8 million abatement from New York City at the same time it was being bailed out with $180 billion in federal money."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/us/how-local-taxpayers-bankroll-corporations.html

October 2010: "The United States Treasury concealed $40 billion in likely taxpayer losses on the bailout of the American International Group earlier this month, when it abandoned its usual method for valuing investments, according to a report by the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/business/26tarp.html

May 2010: "Thornburg wasn’t the only firm Goldman pressured this way. It made similar demands — using similar arguments — of A.I.G., the insurer that stood behind many of Goldman’s mortgage securities. Ultimately, Goldman’s demands drained the insurer of so much cash that a hobbled A.I.G. required a taxpayer bailout in September 2008. Meanwhile, Goldman had been buying protection against a possible debt default by A.I.G. at the same time that it was pressuring A.I.G. to pay it additional cash. Because Goldman’s own cash demands were weakening A.I.G., Goldman had a front-row seat to the distress the company was experiencing — giving Goldman added insight that buying default insurance on A.I.G. was probably a shrewd investment."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/business/19client.html

April 2010: "In seven of Goldman’s Abacus deals, the bank went to the American International Group for insurance on the bonds. Those deals have led to billions of dollars in losses at A.I.G., which received a $180 billion taxpayer rescue. The Abacus deal in the S.E.C. complaint was not one of them."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/business/17goldman.html

February 2010: 'Goldman often "insured" some of this garbage with AIG, using a virtually unregulated form of pseudo-insurance called credit-default swaps. Thanks in large part to deregulation pushed by Bob Rubin, former chairman of Goldman, and Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, AIG wasn't required to actually have the capital to pay off the deals. As a result, banks like Goldman bought more than $440 billion worth of this bogus insurance from AIG, a huge blind bet that the taxpayer ended up having to eat.'

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/32255149/wall_streets_bailout_hustle

July 2009: "Credit-default swaps, derivative instruments that are used as a kind of insurance against the possible default of a mortgage-backed securities, were a central cause of the near collapse of the American International Group, an issuer and heavy trader of such instruments. The instruments were marketed as a way to limit and shift risk. But instead they wound up spreading the crisis like a virus."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/business/16derivatives.html

July 2009: "Seeking to avoid the public furor that erupted last spring, the American International Group has been quietly seeking approval from the new federal compensation czar to pay a total of $2.4 million dollars in bonuses to dozens of its senior executives."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/business/10insure.html

June 2009: "matter shifted to US Airways’ insurer, the American International Group, operating under government stewardship since its bailout last fall...If there is no negligence, then arguably there is no liability, and no obligation to pay claims. That poses a problem for the passengers of US Airways Flight 1549."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/business/12aig.html

June 2009: "The latest act in the drama of the American International Group opens Monday when the ailing insurance giant takes its former chief executive to court, accusing him of plundering a trust that it says was set up to pay top performers."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/business/15aig.html

January 2009: 'More than 30 financial services companies have been subpoenaed, including JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch and the American International Group, which have recently received government assistance and in the case of A.I.G., an outright federal bailout. Several have disclosed in corporate filings that their employees have been called to testify before grand juries or have received “Wells notices” from the S.E.C. warning that an enforcement action is looming.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/business/09insure.html

October 2008: "The beleaguered insurer American International Group has agreed to suspend payments to executives from a $600 million bonus fund as well as $19 million in payments to its former chief executive, the New York attorney general announced on Wednesday."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/business/23aig.html

September 2008: 'Yes, he was wrong. Reagan was wrong. And the same ideologues who populated the corporate suites at Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and American International Group were wrong, too. The legendary former boss of AIG, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, spent hundreds of thousands of his company's profits promoting right-wing ideology at places like the Manhattan Institute, where he was a trustee. And sitting on the AIG board of directors for the past two decades was Martin Feldstein, the Harvard economics professor whose famous penchant for privatization and hatred of taxation made him the ideological mentor of a generation of Republican politicians and officials.'

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2008/09/19/market/index.html

May 2005: Sellers of annuities are also the subjects of civil lawsuits. The American International Group, the insurance company whose accounting practices are under investigation by regulators and federal prosecutors, has been sued recently in California by elderly investors who bought annuities the company issued. The investors are also suing Estate Preservation Inc. of El Segundo, Calif., which sold the annuities.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/business/yourmoney/15vict.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) AIG Financial Products Organization May 14, 2009
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) AIG General Organization Oct 24, 2008
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) AIG SunAmerica Organization Aug 15, 2006
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) American Life Insurance Company (Alico) Organization Jul 25, 2008
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) Chartis Organization Jul 18, 2010
Possible/Unclear Moore Capital Management Organization May 7, 2011
Financial Recipient from (past or present) Société Générale Organization Feb 18, 2010
Possible/Unclear Starr International Co. Organization Jun 3, 2005
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) Travel Guard International Organization Oct 24, 2007
Possible/Unclear Union Excess Reinsurance Co. Organization Jun 3, 2005
Organization Executive (past or present) Joseph J. Cassano Person Oct 24, 2008
Director/Trustee/Overseer (past or present) Prof. Martin Feldstein Ph.D. Person Sep 21, 2008
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Barry Goldman Person May 14, 2009
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Maurice "Hank" R. Greenberg Person Jun 3, 2005
Advised by (past or present) Secretary of State Henry Alfred Kissinger Person Apr 1, 2008
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Edward M. Liddy Person Oct 24, 2008
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Michael McCarter Person Oct 30, 2006
Organization Executive (past or present) Thomas Savage Person May 14, 2009
Organization Executive (past or present) Howard I. Smith Person Jun 3, 2005
Founded/Co-Founded by Cornelius Vander Starr Person Dec 18, 2005
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Martin J. Sullivan Person Jun 3, 2005
Director/Trustee/Overseer (past or present) Frank G. Wisner Person Jul 25, 2008

Articles and Resources

39 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 19]

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Dec 01, 2012 As Companies Seek Tax Deals, Governments Pay High Price

QUOTE: states, counties and cities are giving up more than $80 billion each year to companies. The beneficiaries come from virtually every corner of the corporate world, encompassing oil and coal conglomerates, technology and entertainment companies, banks and big-box retail chains. The cost of the awards is certainly far higher....A portrait arises of mayors and governors who are desperate to create jobs, outmatched by multinational corporations and short on tools to fact-check what companies tell them....Many of the officials said they feared that companies would move jobs overseas if they did not get subsidies in the United States. Over the years, corporations have increasingly exploited that fear, creating a high-stakes bazaar where they pit local officials against one another to get the most lucrative packages.

 New York Times
May 31, 2011 S.E.C. Case Stands Out Because It Stands Alone

QUOTE: How Mr. Tourre alone came to be the face of mortgage-securities fraud has raised questions among former prosecutors and Congressional officials about how aggressive and thorough the government’s investigations have been into Wall Street’s role in the mortgage crisis.

 New York Times
Apr 27, 2011 A.I.G. to Sue 2 Firms to Recover Some Losses

QUOTE: A.I.G. is preparing several suits against banks, like Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, that created the $40 billion in mortgage bonds… The company says it believes the banks issued misleading statements about the quality of the mortgages within those bonds.

 New York Times
Dec 22, 2010 N.Y. Attorney General Cuomo sues Ernst & Young, alleging Lehman accounting fraud

QUOTE: The big accounting firm Ernst & Young helped Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers conceal its deteriorating financial condition before Lehman's historic collapse, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo charged...

 Washington Post
Oct 26, 2010 Treasury Hid A.I.G. Loss, Report Says

QUOTE: The United States Treasury concealed $40 billion in likely taxpayer losses on the bailout of the American International Group earlier this month, when it abandoned its usual method for valuing investments...

 New York Times
May 22, 2010 No criminal charges for executives in troubled AIG subsidiary

QUOTE: The Justice Department has closed its high-profile investigation into current and former executives of an American International Group subsidiary that was linked to the insurance giant's near collapse, sources familiar with the probe said Friday evening.

 Washington Post
May 18, 2010 Clients Worried About Goldman’s Dueling Goals

QUOTE: Goldman’s bets against WaMu, wagers that took place even as it helped WaMu feed a housing frenzy that Goldman had already lost faith in, are examples of conflicting roles that trouble its critics and some former clients. While Goldman has legions of satisfied customers and maintains that it puts its clients first, it also sometimes appears to work against the interests of those same clients when opportunities to make trading profits off their financial troubles arise.

 New York Times
Apr 16, 2010 S.E.C. Accuses Goldman of Fraud in Housing Deal

QUOTE: Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street powerhouse, was accused of securities fraud in a civil lawsuit filed Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which claims the bank created and sold a mortgage investment that was secretly intended to fail.

 New York Times
Mar 31, 2010 Pay of Hedge Fund Managers Roared Back Last Year

QUOTE: in a startling comeback, top hedge fund managers rode the 2009 stock market rally to record gains, with the highest-paid 25 earning a collective $25.3 billion, according to the survey, beating the old 2007 high by a wide margin.

 New York Times
Feb 17, 2010 Wall Street's Bailout Hustle: Goldman Sachs and other big banks aren't just pocketing the trillions we gave them to rescue the economy - they're re-creating the conditions for another crash

QUOTE: there's still a widespread misunderstanding of how exactly Wall Street "earns" its money, with emphasis on the quotation marks around "earns." The question everyone should be asking, as one bailout recipient after another posts massive profits — Goldman reported $13.4 billion in profits last year, after paying out that $16.2 billion in bonuses and compensation — is this: In an economy as horrible as ours, with every factory town between New York and Los Angeles looking like those hollowed-out ghost ships we see on History Channel documentaries like Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes, where in the hell did Wall Street's eye-popping profits come from, exactly?

 Rolling Stone
Nov 16, 2009 Audit Faults New York Fed in A.I.G. Bailout

QUOTE: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York gave up much of its power in high-pressure negotiations with the American International Group’s trading partners last year...

 New York Times
Sep 30, 2009 Credit Rating Agency Analysts Covering AIG, Lehman Brothers Never Disciplined

QUOTE: Analysts at the three biggest credit rating agencies who gave positive, investment-grade ratings to AIG and Lehman Brothers up until their collapse have not been fired or disciplined...

 Huffington Post
Aug 04, 2009 Dueling Public Interests In Policing Rescued Firms: SEC Actions Could Weigh on U.S. Stakes

QUOTE: the quandary [the SEC filing suit against Regions Financial] shows the difficulty facing the nation's top Wall Street cop at a time when the economic crisis has left the U.S. government as the part-owner or controller of an unprecedented array of financial companies. Protecting investors on the one hand could mean harming taxpayer-owners on the other.

 Washington Post
Aug 03, 2009 SEC Charges Bank of America With Lying to Investors

QUOTE: The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday charged Bank of America with lying to investors about its plan to pay billions of dollars in bonuses to employees of Merrill Lynch.

 Washington Post
Jul 15, 2009 Federal Inquiry Looks at Derivatives Data Providers

QUOTE: Federal antitrust officials have opened a broad inquiry into the practices of the companies that serve as clearinghouses for trades of derivative instruments and are looking in particular at whether any companies have improperly used inside information about trades to profit...

 New York Times
Jul 10, 2009 A.I.G. Seeks U.S. Support for Bonuses

QUOTE: A.I.G. officials have struggled to balance the need to retain executives and traders who can unwind its trading positions and sell its businesses against the public’s outrage that those employees would be paid bonuses at all. In the spring, lawmakers erupted after learning that A.I.G. planned to pay more than $165 million to executives in that unit, an amount that was reduced when some were pressured to give the money back.

 New York Times
Jun 25, 2009 Big Health Firms Underpay Claims

QUOTE: Congressional investigators have discovered that large health insurers in every region of the country are relying on faulty databases to underpay millions of valid insurance claims.

 Wall Street Journal, The (WSJ)
Jun 14, 2009 Insurance Giant A.I.G. Takes Ex-Chief to Court

QUOTE: Maurice R. Greenberg unlawfully took $4.3 billion in stock in 2005, the year he was forced out as chief executive....the trial may delve into the broader questions of who is responsible for A.I.G’s near collapse and whether, as chief executive of A.I.G., Mr. Greenberg was more preoccupied with financial maneuvers than with fostering sound risk management.

 New York Times
Jun 11, 2009 A.I.G. Balks at Claims From Jet Ditching in Hudson

QUOTE: aviation liability insurance is activated by a finding of negligence on the part of an airline. If there is no negligence, then arguably there is no liability, and no obligation to pay claims. That poses a problem for the passengers of US Airways Flight 1549. They suffered real losses and injuries, but they are widely perceived as having been saved from sudden, violent death by their heroic and quick-thinking flight crew

 New York Times
May 26, 2009 10 Things Your Home Insurer Won't Tell You

QUOTE: 1. “We have our own caste system"....3. “One wrong move and we’ll drop you".... 4. . . . especially now that Big Brother is watching"....6. “You’re paying too much for your policy.”

 Smart Money

39 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 19]