"AIG contributed millions to campaign accounts
Members of Congress are seeming to revel in bashing AIG, the poster child in Washington for Wall Street greed. But as a watchdog group pointed out yesterday, they were more than happy to accept campaign donations from the company when it wasn't seen as so toxic.
Over the past two decades,
Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut - who on Wednesday said he watered down an executive pay provision in the stimulus bill that could have blocked the controversial AIG bonuses - is the top individual recipient, with more than $281,000 between 1989 and 2008.
Now chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Dodd said he took the action at the behest of unnamed officials at the Treasury Department, who worried that a retroactive clause would invite lawsuits, and has scoffed at any suggestion that the campaign cash played any role.
Oh, ARROGANCE and INSULTS from Congress, how nice. You are first in the harbor, Dodd.
Sort of makes this all a bunch of hot fart mist, doesn't it?
"House approves bill to heavily tax AIG bonuses; 'We want our money back,' Pelosi says" by Associated Press And Globe Staff | March 20, 2009
WASHINGTON - Denouncing a "squandering of the people's money," House lawmakers voted decisively yesterday to slap punishing taxes on employee bonuses paid by troubled insurance giant AIG and other companies bailed out by taxpayers.
The bill would impose a 90 percent tax on bonuses given to employees with family incomes above $250,000 at
"We want our money back now for the taxpayers," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
Pffft! What a piece of crap she turned out to be, huh, America? Funding the wars to the hilt, no impeachment of Bush, signed off on torture and spying, etc, etc, etc.
The vote to tax back most of the bonuses was 328-93, with support from 243 Democrats and 85 Republicans. The bill, which required two-thirds support for passage, was opposed by six Democrats and 87 Republicans. Democrats led the charge in an attempt to get in front of raging public anger over the AIG bonuses, totaling $165 million, which were paid to employees over the weekend. The recipients included traders in the unit that nearly brought about the company's collapse and forced the federal bailout, which stands at more than $180 billion so far....
Pffft! Playing you for FOOLEYS, Amurka!
Republicans and other critics questioned whether the bill was legal, a tax specialist said there is plenty of precedent for levying punitive taxes on behavior that lawmakers find objectionable. "You can write very narrowly tailored laws," said Robert Willens, a corporate tax lawyer in New York.
Answer: It's NOT!!
Article I, Section 9: "No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."
New York state Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo said yesterday that AIG has given him the list of employees who received the retention bonuses, but he won't release any names until his office has answered any security concerns. He also said he will work with AIG to determine which workers have decided to return the payments. AIG's CEO, Edward M. Liddy, has asked those who received bonuses of more than $100,000 to return at least half.
The tax bill passed as controversy swirled around the disclosure that a provision that would have made such payouts illegal was stripped from last month's $787 billion economic stimulus bill by its Democratic sponsors. Senator Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who is chairman of the Banking Committee, said Wednesday his staff agreed to a request from the Treasury Department to delete the provision because of legal issues. However, Dodd said he was not aware of any AIG bonuses at the time the change was made.
(Blog editor just exhaling in exasperation)
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner yesterday confirmed his staff's conversation with Dodd. "We wanted to make sure it was strong enough to survive legal challenge," Geithner told CNN.
Geithner said that he did not know about the "full scale" of the AIG bonuses until March 10, two days before he informed the White House, but "I was in a position where I didn't know about those sooner. I take full responsibility for that."
He's lying there because the bonuses were announced in the press in January. Nice to know we got a Fed LIAR for Treasury Secretary, huh? If you are taking responsibilty, Geit, then RESIGN!!
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"Dodd says he didn't know bill revision would allow for AIG bonuses
Shameless! What an unmitigated liar!
Under fire for his role in allowing the AIG bonuses, Senator Chris Dodd mounted a vigorous self-defense yesterday, telling home-state constituents that he had no idea that a change in language in an executive pay provision would permit them.
"No one is angrier than I am," he said in Enfield, Conn....
Pfffft!
He said Treasury Department officials asked him to revise the provision, to protect some already-contracted bonuses, because they were concerned about legal issues. "It seemed rather technical and innocuous at the time," said Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
Then why did you go along? Of course, we know why ($$$).
Dodd, who faces reelection next year, said he was "disturbed" that those who sought the change didn't stand up and take the blame as soon as the controversy emerged earlier this week....
As HE PASSES the BUCK!!!!
--more--"Now for the ARROGANCE:
From GUESS WHERE!!
NEW YORK - While American International Group comes under fire from Congress over executive bonuses, it is quietly fighting the federal government for the return of $306 million in tax payments, some related to deals that were conducted through offshore tax havens.
Yeah, that is quite a bit of chutzpah, isn't it?
AIG sued the government in February in a bid to force it to return the payments, which stemmed in large part from its use of aggressive tax deals, some involving entities controlled by the company's financial products unit in the Cayman Islands, Ireland, the Dutch Antilles, and other offshore havens.
It's the HEIGHT of ARROGANCE, isn't it? THEY CHEATED YOU, the TAXPAYERS of AmeriKa, and then YOU the TAXPAYERS of AmeriKa BAILED THEM OUT!!!!!
AIG is effectively suing its majority owner, the government, which has an 80 percent stake and has poured $180 billion into the insurer in a bid to avert its collapse and avoid troubling the global financial markets. The company is in effect asking for even more money, in the form of tax refunds. The suit also suggests that AIG is spending taxpayer money to pursue its case, something it is legally entitled to do. Its initial claim was denied by the IRS last year.
Un-frikkin-real!!!!
The lawsuit, filed on Feb. 27 in US District Court in Manhattan, details, among other things, certain tax-related dealings of the financial products unit, the once high-flying division that has been singled out for AIG's financial crisis last fall. Other deals involved AIG offshore entities whose function centers on executive compensation and include C.V. Starr & Co., a closely held concern controlled by Hank Greenberg, AIG's former chairman, and the Starr International Co., a privately held enterprise incorporated in Panama, and commonly known as SICO.
The lawsuit contends in part that the federal government owes AIG nearly $62 million in foreign tax credits related to eight foreign entities, with names like Lumagrove, Laperouse, and Foppingadreef, that were set up or controlled by financial products, often through a unit known as Pinestead Holdings.
US tax law allows US companies to claim a credit for any taxes paid to a foreign government. But the IRS denied AIG's refund claims in 2008, saying it had improperly calculated the credits. The IRS has identified so-called foreign tax-credit generators as an area of abuse that it is increasingly monitoring.
The remainder of AIG's claim, for $244 million, concerns net operating loss carry-backs, capital loss carry-backs, a general refund claim, and claims for refunds of other tax-related payments that AIG says it made to the IRS but are now owed back. The claim also covers $119 million in penalties and interest that AIG says it is due back from the government.In this case, that's YOU, TAXPAYERS!!
I'd say NO MORE BAILOUTS for AIG, wouldn't you?
Thing is, Fed will do it on the sly. You don't control shit, Amurkns, and neither do the polirticians. That's what makes this all the more galling.
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Update: You'll love this!
"AIG bonus payments $218 million
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Documents turned over to the Connecticut attorney general show that American International Group Inc paid out over $218 million in bonuses, more than the previously disclosed $165 million, published reports said on Saturday....
No wonder Dodd is the top recipient.
The documents show that bonuses of at least $1 million were paid to 73 people, and five received more than $4 million.
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