The first runner-up in our series.
I hope the $182 BILLION (officially; probably much more what with the secrecy and interest on the borrowed loot) was worth it, America.
"AIG cuts its debt to US by $25b; Hands over stakes in overseas units" by Hugh Son and Erik Holm, Bloomberg News | June 26, 2009
NEW YORK - American International Group Inc., the insurer bailed out by the US government, has agreed to hand over stakes in two overseas units to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to reduce its central-bank debt by $25 billion.
Okay, so they are paying off the Fed(?), but HOW ABOUT the TAXPAYERS!?
AIG will place its largest non-US life insurance businesses - American International Assurance Co. and American Life Insurance Co. - into special-purpose vehicles to eventually sell shares to the public, the insurer said yesterday.
Why would the public want to buy their worthless losses?
The transactions, first disclosed in March amid the company’s third revised rescue, will close in the second half of the year, AIG said. “It helps them move forward, and helps them exit their position with the government,’’ said David Havens, managing director at investment bank Hexagon Securities LLC. “There still remains a serious question about whether AIG will be able to do enough to get out from under the government entirely.’’
No, the FED is a PRIVATE CONSORTIUM of BANKS, sir, NOT the GOVERNMENT!!! I love misinformation in my newspaper!
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The company, which owes about $40 billion on its $60 billion Fed credit line, has disclosed deals raising about $6.7 billion. The New York Fed will get $16 billion of preferred shares in AIA and $9 billion in Alico, AIG said. The insurer will hold common shares in the units and benefit from any value beyond the $25 billion promised to the Fed after share sales.
The transaction “represents a major step toward repaying taxpayers and preserving the value of AIA and Alico,’’ Chief Executive Edward Liddy said.
That's why Americans want to scalp these guys; the LYING is BEYOND BELIEF!!!!
AIA operates in China, India, Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. The unit has more than 20 million customers and more than $60 billion of assets. Alico operates in more than 50 countries, including parts of Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Japan. Japan is Alico’s biggest market....
Does the G in AIG stand for GLOBAL?
Or for GREENBERG?
"Greenberg to pay SEC $15m, putting AIG lawsuit to rest" by David Scheer and Thom Weidlich, Bloomberg News | August 7, 2009
Another LOVE TAP on the wrist.
NEW YORK - Maurice “Hank’’ Greenberg, who led American International Group Inc. for 38 years until his ouster amid state and federal accounting probes in 2005, will pay $15 million to settle US claims he manipulated the insurer’s earnings.
Greenberg, 84, and former AIG chief financial officer Howard Smith “directed several different accounting transactions to materially affect AIG’s reported financial results,’’ the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court in Manhattan. Smith will pay $1.5 million to resolve the suit.
“Corporate leaders cannot avoid the truth and consequences of their companies’ performance by using improper accounting gimmicks and signing off on distorted financial reports,’’ said the SEC’s enforcement director, Robert Khuzami. The accounting deals “presented a false financial picture and allowed AIG to claim success in meeting its performance goals.’’
Well, apparently you can. Related: Greenberg First in Line For Guillotine
The insurer’s former chairman and chief executive has been locked in legal battles since AIG’s board pushed him out in 2005 during an investigation by then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer of reinsurance, the business of selling insurance to insurers.
Aaaaaaah, Spitzer!!
Related:
"Spitzer was likely a target of a White House and Wall Street operation to silence one of its most dangerous and vocal critics of their handling of the current financial market crisis."
See what you are dealing with now?
The company later restated $3.4 billion of earnings and in 2006 agreed to pay more than $1.6 billion to settle state and SEC claims it had misled investors. Greenberg has called much of the restatement unnecessary.
In a statement yesterday, Greenberg said the agency’s complaint does not blame him “for the vast majority of accounting issues’’ involved in the adjustment and does not accuse him of fraud. If it had, “he was confident that he could defeat in court any such claim. He acknowledges the obvious fact that he was CEO of AIG at the time of the accounting at issue,’’ the statement said....
Then he wouldn't have settled. Can't help lying, can they?
The pair didn’t admit to or deny wrongdoing. Smith is barred from serving as an officer or director at a public company for three years. He was also barred for five years from working as an accountant in SEC matters.
Oh, how harsh.
Shares of AIG climbed as much as 34 percent to $29.39 and ended trading yesterday at $22.53, up 53 cents. The jump may have been fueled by speculators buying back stock they borrowed and sold short, said Robert Harrington, managing director of equity trading UBS AG in Boston.
SOLD SHORT?!!!!!!!
Why does that ring a bell, readers?
AIG is down 96 percent in the past 12 months.
And CUI BONO?
More on Greenberg below.
Then we find out that AIG MADE PROFIT to the tune of $1.82 BILLION in second quarter? And we won't be getting our $182 billion back?
Those numbers are strangely similiar, aren't they? You smelling a lie, folks?
"AIG earns $1.82b; Freddie Mac in loss as Berkshire gains" by Associated Press | August 8, 2009
American International Group Inc., the insurer rescued by the US government, said it had its first profitable quarter since 2007 - but warned that it still has plenty of repair work to do.
The troubled insurer said yesterday it earned $1.82 billion in the April-June quarter as some of its soured assets regained value. But its core insurance business deteriorated sharply amid the recession. And AIG cautioned that unwinding its $1.3 trillion worth of derivatives will take a long time and that future results will be volatile as it accounts for its restructuring.....
Now we are getting into REAL $$$ TERRITORY -- with a CAPITAL T, huh?
For AIG, its big plan to pay back the government loan keeping it alive is to sell some of its businesses. But that plan has been revised “to take into account the deterioration of global market conditions,’’ and it now plans to “maximize the value of its businesses over a longer time frame,’’ the company wrote in a filing.
Translation: How do we screw people out of their loot some more.
Investors appeared to focus on AIG’s profit, which included $311 million, or $2.30 per share, for common shareholders. The government owns about 80 percent of the company because of the bailout. For the week, the stock rocketed about 71 percent. The company said its profit for the quarter that ended June 30 was driven by the stabilizing value of some of its riskier investments, including in its AIG Financial Products Corp. portfolio, the division responsible for many of the transactions that prompted the government bailout last fall. It also got help from accounting changes.
So it's the SAME OLD SHELL GAME, huh?
Total revenue rose 48 percent, to $29.53 billion from $19.93 billion a year earlier....
And SO DID COMP and BONUSES!!!!
AIG has received a government loan package worth up to $182.5 billion. It said it expects proceeds of about $8 billion from sales of assets so far this year, giving it about $4.6 billion to begin repaying debts, including what it owes the government, according to a filing yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It expects to reduce its debt by another $25 billion by selling two life insurance units.
And the papers are trying to tell the taxpayers they are making a profit!
And GET THIS!
AIG also disclosed in the filing that it intends to pay $249 million in employee retention bonuses through the rest of this year, as part of a total of $1.09 billion to be paid out under 2008 plans aimed at retaining high-performing workers.
Can't they BREAK THAT CONTRACT like the auto workers?
AIG was sharply criticized earlier this year when the total payout was revealed, although yesterday was the first time it offered details on the size of the bonuses by the business unit.
Yeah, notice how the looting just slips away with nothing ever done?
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Related: Congress Gives Bankers Permission to Lie
"Liddy leaves AIG, returns to retirement with $1, ‘a few bruises’" by Hugh Son, Bloomberg News | August 11, 2009
Sounds good, right? Keep reading.
NEW YORK - American International Group’s former CEO Edward Liddy, who returned the bailed-out insurer to profitability, had “no idea’’ what he was in for when he joined the firm, he wrote to employees.
Liddy, 63, left retirement to run AIG in September after the New York-based firm needed US support to prevent its collapse, a rescue that ballooned to $182.5 billion. He endured two congressional hearings and was the face of the insurer during a period in which employees received death threats and AIG reported the biggest loss of any US corporation. He worked for a salary of $1. “I will return to retirement with $1, a few bruises, and a feeling of hard-earned accomplishment,’’ Liddy said in a letter dated Friday. “I do not intend to linger or second-guess new management or policy makers.’’
Liddy oversaw the beginning of efforts to repay the government by selling assets. When the CEO failed to find buyers as quickly as expected, he persuaded the US to expand the bailout three times. Lawmakers, including Representative Elijah Cummings, grew frustrated with the costs to prop up AIG and the funds that flowed to banks that traded with the insurer. Liddy, who was previously CEO of Allstate Corp., had been on the board of Goldman Sachs Group last year when he was asked to take over at AIG....
Why is that SOOOOOO NOT a surprise?
EVERYONE GOES THROUGH THERE, don't they?
Related: AIG Used Bailout Money For Bonuses, Gave Money to Banks
AIG posted second-quarter net income of $1.82 billion on Friday, the insurer’s first profit in seven periods. A spokesman for AIG declined to comment. Attempts to reach Liddy weren’t immediately successful.
If they POSTED a PROFIT then they can PAY US BACK!
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Okay, if HE is LEAVING, WHO is COMING ON BOARD?
"Tops on new AIG boss’s agenda: Adriatic vacation" By Hugh Son and Zachary R. Mider, Bloomberg News | August 12, 2009
Are you effin' s***ting me?
NEW YORK - Robert Benmosche, the chief executive of American International Group, plans to spend part of his first month leading the insurer in Croatia on vacation, according to two people familiar with the situation.
Benmosche, 65, who started Monday as chief executive and president of the company, will leave for about two weeks, according to one of the people, who declined to be identified because the plans were private. Mark Herr, an AIG spokesman, said the New York-based firm wouldn’t comment on travel.
“It’s probably not a propitious time for an incoming CEO to begin with a vacation,’’ said Steven Seiden, president of New York-based executive recruitment firm Seiden Krieger Associates. Seiden said that while the absence will not hurt the company’s financial position, “from a public relations standpoint it’s probably not the wisest thing to do.’’
So what? THEY OBVIOUSLY DO NOT CARE WHAT WE THINK!
What I want to know is WHAT IS HIS SALARY!?
Benmosche, named last week as AIG’s fifth chief executive since 2005, has to retain customers and employees to preserve the value of operations that will be sold to repay loans included in AIG’s $182.5 billion federal rescue.
Aren't ever getting that money back, Americans -- but you will still have to pay off the debt and interest from the borrowed money.
The insurer posted its first quarterly profit last week after more than $100 billion in net losses in the six prior periods, and said that subsidiaries “remain challenged.’’
The insurer’s top executives are available to the company by telephone and the Internet when they travel, according to a person familiar with AIG. Benmosche bought a Croatian villa, with 8,000 square feet of living space located along the Adriatic Coast, after visiting Dubrovnik in 1999, according to a 2004 Forbes magazine article. He paid about $1 million for the property, which was built in 1934 for the king of Yugoslavia’s treasurer and included four buildings and 150 feet of waterfront, the magazine said.
Benmosche was chief executive of MetLife Inc., the largest US life insurer, for eight years through 2006. Benmosche replaced Edward Liddy, who was appointed in September after AIG agreed to turn over a majority stake to the federal government in exchange for a bailout. Liddy, who returned AIG to profitability in the second quarter, was the face of the insurer during a period in which employees received death threats.
Yeah, f*** you and your false flag claims.
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Again, what is the STARTING SALARY, huh?
"AIG to pays its new chief $7 million" by Bloomberg News | August 18, 2009
Thank you for taking care of him, taxpayers.
NEW YORK - His predecessor worked for $1, but American International Group’s chief executive, Robert Benmosche, will get a $7 million annual salary.
Benmosche, 65, who started last week as CEO and president, will get $3 million in cash and $4 million in common stock, AIG said.
I hope it shits the bed, whoops!
He is also eligible for as much as $3.5 million a year in stock from an incentive program.
Un-f***ing-believable, huh?
These guys didn't learn a damn thing.
The former MetLife Inc. CEO has to retain customers and employees to preserve the value of AIG units that will be sold to repay loans included in the company’s $182.5 billion US rescue....
They ain't repaying s***!
Benmosche’s agreement was approved “in principle’’ by Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration’s so-called special master for pay at firms that took the most bailout funds, AIG said. Benmosche is not eligible for severance pay if he is terminated.
I guess he's not doing his job, huh?
See: Lying Looters Large and Small: Reading the Fein Print
Oh, I guess he is.
AIG said that the salary and stock are “strong incentives’’ for Benmosche to perform in the best interest of the company....
Ummm, WHY WOULDN'T HE no matter HOW MUCH YOU PAID HIM?
They EXPECT THAT out of a grunt!
Are there DIFFERENT RULES for LYING LOOTERS?
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And remember what I've been saying about the NEVER-TO-BE-SEEN-AGAIN $182 billion?
"AIG stabilized, US report says; But repayment concerns raised" by Mary Williams Walsh, New York Times | September 22, 2009
The new assessment of AIG’s prospects coincided with word that a senior House Democrat was planning to ask the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury about possibly easing the terms of AIG’s government debt. Representative Edolphus Towns of New York, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, began considering debt relief after meeting last week with Maurice R. Greenberg, AIG’s former CEO, according to a spokeswoman....
Yes, THEY DO WORK for the BANKSTERS!!!!
So HOW MUCH CAMPAIGN LOOT you taking in from this?
The research arm of Congress reported yesterday that American International Group’s financial condition had stabilized but said it was not clear whether the giant insurance group would ever be able to restructure and repay its federal rescue package.
So HOW MUCH YOU OUT, taxpayers?
And yet the s***ty MSM says you are MAKING a PROFIT off all this?
That's why they are considered SUCH LIARS in the eyes of the American people, and why THEIR INDUSTRY is TANKING!!!!
The Government Accountability Office said the $182 billion bailout had succeeded in breaking AIG’s calamitous fall and produced signs of improvement in its insurance businesses.
That is YOUR BILL (with interest), American taxpayers! Hope it was worth it.
But the company’s ability to rebuild itself and survive over the long term still depends on “market conditions and continued government support,’’ or factors largely beyond the company’s control.
Bullshit! Launder more drug money then!
Paying off the debt to the government will be hard, the report suggested, because raising the money involves selling off subsidiary businesses that make up 65 percent of the company and employ roughly 70,000 people.
All of sudden they care about employees? How SHAMELESS!!!!
HIDING BEHIND WORKERS so they can KEEP the TAX LOOT!!!!!
Meanwhile, the report suggested that AIG could soon be struggling to stay abreast of its debt.
Then LET THEM FAIL!!!! WHY throw GOOD MONEY after BAD!
It said, for instance, that the original terms of the rescue required AIG to pay 10 percent dividends on the preferred stock it issued to the Treasury. But with a dividend coming due in November, it was not clear whether AIG had the means to pay....
Yup, YOU GOT TAKEN to the CLEANERS, America -- and are still!
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And here is the INSIDE STORY of AIG you will NEVER SEE in an AmeriKan newspaper:
".... AIG is not “too big to fail.” It is simply too important a repository of dirty money and dirty secrets to be exposed. Barack Obama and his administration know this.
AIG, one of the largest pools of investment capital on earth, is also one of the largest launderers of drug money and illegal funds for covert operations. Mike Ruppert’s investigation “AIG” (From The Wilderness, August 14, 2001) exhaustively deconstructed Greenberg and AIG, exposing continuing connections to covert operations, narco trafficking, money laundering, and AIG’s central role in the Wall Street/Washington power nexus.
AIG’s involvement in US covert operations stretches back to World War II, in its roots as C.V. Starr, the intelligence-related proprietary founded by OSS agent Cornelius Vander Starr. The Starr proprietary was connected to CIA/OSS figures Paul Helliwell and Tommy Corcoran. The notorious CIA fronts connected to C.V. Starr, including Civil Air Transport, Sea Supply, and Air America/Pacific Corp were exposed by Peter Dale Scott in his book Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina.
It is also a huge financial “pass-through,” whose counter-parties include Goldman Sachs and (not surprisingly) the same major financial institutions that are the top recipients of the US government’s TARP bailout.
It is no surprise that Barack Obama is the top recipient of AIG funds. AIG’s money also lines the pockets of other members of the Obama administration, and prominent members of Congress, including Senator Christopher Dodd, who has been accused of a sweetheart deal aiding AIG.
The man in the shadows
AIG’s former CEO, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, remains a pivotal figure connected to the institution, which he has fought against, sued, and publicly lambasts the officials in charge of his former company, his “baby.”
Greenberg is a member of world planning groups (Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission) and the Heritage Foundation, a former candidate for CIA director (1995). He is longtime friend of the Bush family. David Boies (of Bush v. Gore fame) is his attorney. So well-connected is Greenberg that he was considered as a nominee for CIA director by Bill Clinton in 1995. The profile of Greenberg in the June 20, 2005, edition of Time magazine, “Down But Not Out”, details Greenberg’s career as a government asset, foreign policy guru, and strongman.
In 2005, while still heading AIG, Greenberg was the target of multiple investigations into the orchestration of sham transactions, the inflation of reserves, illegal stock trades, deception, and book-cooking in an investigation by Eliot Spitzer, who declared that AIG was “a black box run with an iron fist by a CEO who did not tell the public the truth.” Spitzer’s probes of AIG, and other Wall Street malfeasance, was subsequently and conveniently stopped in its tracks, when Spitzer became entangled in a prostitution scandal.
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I covered Spitzer above.
Also see: AIG: Insults and Arrogance
The $24 TRILLION Dollar Question
Bailed Out Banks Didn't Pay Taxes
Say what? AIG is SUING for a REFUND?
