"AIG hid evidence to avoid settlement, judge rules" by Maria Cramer | Globe staff April 11, 2014
A Middlesex Superior Court judge has ordered insurer AIG to pay at least $7 million to a seriously injured Wellesley lawyer, according to a scathing decision that blasts the company for hiding evidence and manipulating witnesses in an attempt to avoid a costly settlement....
Related: Banks Love You
You just keep repeating that to yourself like I do, dear readers.
Lawyers for the company made up facts and persuaded the bus driver who struck Odin Anderson to change his account of what happened, Associate Justice Brian A. Davis wrote.
That's the way the do bu$ine$$.
“This is an egregious case,” Davis wrote. “They were deliberate or callously indifferent acts designed to conceal the truth, improperly skew the legal system, and deprive the Andersons of fair compensation for their injuries.”
That is what it is there for.
AIG argued that Anderson was drunk at the time and ran out between two cars and into the path of the bus, according to the ruling. No one disputed that he had been drinking, but it is unclear from the ruling how much he had consumed.
But Davis said Anderson’s drinking was not a factor in the accident and that the picture painted by AIG that he had run out on the street between the cars was based on a “a wholly made-up fact.”
Then it is not a fact at all; it's a lie.
Lawyers for the company settled on that defense during a 2003 trial about Anderson’s personal injury claim. The jury awarded Anderson and his family $3.1 million, but reduced it to $2.2 million in part because they believed that Anderson was somewhat to blame for what happened.
I'm for total prohibition.
Though the verdict was seen as favorable by some of the defense attorneys, the company appealed it, Davis noted. But in 2008, the state Appeals Court affirmed the jury award, and the company paid the Andersons $3.6 million.
The Andersons’ lawyers said they pursued a complaint alleging bad faith practices after they learned of questionable defense tactics during the 2003 trial.
This week’s ruling culminates a case that began on a sunny, clear day in September 1998....
Does that ever evoke a certain day in history that was a fulcrum for the world in which we now live?
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Related:
"American International Group said Thursday its net income rose in the second quarter as its property and casualty and life insurance business brought in more revenue. During the quarter, AIG repaid all the loans it owed to the Federal Reserve as part of the financial rescue measures it received in 2008 and 2009. AIG earned $2.33 billion and revenue rose. The US still owns 61 percent of AIG. The company has been shedding business units and restructuring in an effort to repay the $182.5 billion bailout package it received during the financial crisis. AIG said the New York Fed made $12.7 billion in profits. “We are close to achieving our goal of returning to America all that it provided to AIG during the crisis, plus a profit,” said AIG chief executive Robert Benmosche."
They made money off death.
Related: US expects $750m more from AIG
Treasury sells off its last AIG shares
You taxpayers made $22.7 billion on the deal, and if you believe that I have some of Saddam's leftover WMD to sell you another war.
Bailed out AIG now says IRS owes it $30.2m
I didn't check the fine print. Those for bonuses, are they?
Judge dismisses suit over AIG rescue
"AIG opts out of suit against US" by Steve Rothwell and Christina Rexrode | Associated Press January 10, 2013
NEW YORK — Afraid of looking like a world-class ingrate, AIG on Wednesday decided against suing the federal government over the $182 billion bailout that saved the giant insurance company from collapse.
American International Group was put in the awkward position of having to consider joining a lawsuit brought against Uncle Sam by its former chief executive, Maurice ‘‘Hank’’ Greenberg.
The suit claims that the terms of the taxpayer-funded bailout were too onerous. The government received a huge stake in AIG when it bailed the company out at the height of the 2008 financial crisis. AIG has since paid all the money back and notes that the government made a profit of $22.7 billion.
The timing could hardly have been worse for AIG. The company is in the midst of a ‘‘Thank You, America’’ ad campaign to show its gratitude for being rescued from the brink of collapse.
The prospect of the insurer joining the lawsuit had already triggered outrage. A congressman from Vermont issued a statement telling AIG: ‘‘Don’t even think about it.’’ Comedian Andy Borowitz likened the insurer to somebody suing a fireman for ripping a designer jacket after rescuing them from a burning building.
AIG, which was legally obligated to consider joining the lawsuit, demurred. The company said it would not join Greenberg’s lawsuit and would not permit Greenberg to pursue his claims in AIG’s name.
I thought a judge ruled against him; I gue$$ certain tribe members intere$ts outweigh those of a judge.
AIG’s chief executive Bob Benmosche told CNBC in a televised interview that the company would be better off in the long run without the ‘‘headwinds’’ of the lawsuit and should look forward, rather than focusing on the past.
‘‘It’s not acceptable socially for AIG to take the money and go back and sue the government,’’ Benmosche said in the CNBC interview. ‘‘A deal is a deal.’’
The insurer nearly imploded after making huge bets on mortgage investments that later went wrong. Regulators were concerned that if it were allowed to fail it would send shock waves through the financial system, which was already reeling as Lehman Brothers collapsed.
The company became a symbol for excessive risk on Wall Street and a touchstone of public anger.
Since the financial meltdown, AIG has undergone a restructuring that has halved the size of the company, with the twin aims of focusing on its core insurance operations and repaying the government’s bailout cash.
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"AIG to consider joining suit over own bailout" by Ben Protess and Michael J. de la Merced | New York Times January 08, 2013
NEW YORK — Fresh from paying back a $182 billion bailout, the American International Group has been running a nationwide advertising campaign with the tagline ‘‘Thank you America.’’
I saw one of the ads during a football game and it was ill.
Behind the scenes, the restored insurance company is weighing whether to tell the government agencies that rescued it during the financial crisis: Thanks, but you cheated our shareholders.
The board of AIG will meet Wednesday to consider joining a $25 billion shareholder lawsuit against the government, court records show. The lawsuit contends that the onerous nature of the rescue — the taking of what became a 92 percent stake in the company, the deal’s high interest rates, and the funneling of billions to the insurer’s Wall Street clients — deprived shareholders of tens of billions of dollars and violated the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the taking of private property for ‘‘public use, without just compensation.’’
Related: Inside Job
Once you see that you realize what truly monstrous looters we have on our hands.
Related: Inside Job
Once you see that you realize what truly monstrous looters we have on our hands.
Maurice R. Greenberg, AIG’s former chief executive, who remains a major investor in the company, filed the lawsuit in 2011 on behalf of fellow shareholders. He has since urged AIG to join the case.
The choice is not a simple one for the insurer. Its board members owe a duty to shareholders to consider the lawsuit.
Should Greenberg snare a major settlement without AIG, the company could face additional lawsuits from other shareholders. Suing the government would not only placate Greenberg but would put AIG in line for a potential payout.
Yet such a move would almost certainly be widely seen as an audacious display of ingratitude. The action would also threaten to inflame tensions in Washington.
Yeah, right. All these settlements they make with the looters nets them a nice kickback off the schemes of thievery.
Yeah, right. All these settlements they make with the looters nets them a nice kickback off the schemes of thievery.
