AIG to pay $165 million in bonuses

[75th]

Without the Feds stepping AIG will be on the way to bankruptcy paying bonuses like that. If an outside entity, be it private or government, invests in your business I'm pretty sure they expect to have some say in how you operate.
[\quote]

Indeed, and that's why you figure this stuff out BEFORE the money changes hands. I can't return my jeep to the dealer and expect a refund if after 3 months I decide I want a sunroof.

A broker can churn accounts and be profitable to the company...in the short term at least.

That's illegal, so the broker in question would be fired and therefore any contract would be void.

Besides, I'm sure these guys aren't brokers. If a list of recepients is released, I'm surer well see a list of people who made the company money and excelled in their respective positions.

 

[puddlemonkey]

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Monday he has issued subpoenas for the names of American International Group employees given millions of dollars in bonuses despite their possible roles in the insurance giant's near-collapse.

Cuomo said his office will investigate whether the $165 million in payments are fraudulent under state law because they were promised when the company knew it wouldn't have the money to cover them. AIG reported this month that it lost $61.7 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, the largest corporate loss in history, and it has benefited from more than $170 billion in a federal rescue.

"When a company pays funds that the company effectively doesn't have, it's akin to a looting of a company," Cuomo said. "You could argue if the taxpayers didn't bail out AIG, those contracts wouldn't be worth the paper it's printed on."

Cuomo made good on a threat he made Monday in a letter to AIG's government-appointed chief executive, Edward Liddy, in which he said he would issue administrative subpoenas after 4 p.m. if he didn't get the employees' names, information about their work at AIG's Financial Products subsidiary and the contracts the company said required paying the bonuses. The Financial Products unit sold credit default swaps, the risky contracts that caused massive losses for the insurer.

"Four o'clock has come and gone. We haven't got the information. We'll be issuing subpoenas immediately," Cuomo told reporters in a conference call after the deadline.

As for the bonuses, Cuomo said, "Our information is the checks were sent out on Friday."