AIG Says $182 Billion Taxpayer Bailout Was Too ‘Onerous,’ Threatens To Sue Government

[88m3]

AIG Says $182 Billion Taxpayer Bailout Was Too ‘Onerous,’ Threatens To Sue Government For Billions More
By Travis Waldron on Jan 8, 2013 at 9:05 am
American International Group, the mega-insurer that nearly collapsed in 2008 before being bailed out, is now considering joining a lawsuit filed by its former chairman against the federal government. The lawsuit, filed in 2011 by former AIG chairman Maurice Greenberg, contends that the federal government violated the Fifth Amendment by taking too large a share in the company and charging it excessive interest rates on the $182 billion in loans it gave the company.
Greenberg, who led AIG for nearly four decades, says the deal crushed the company’s shareholders, and he will make the same case to AIG’s board of directors to urge them to join his lawsuit, the New York Times reports:
The board of A.I.G. will meet on Wednesday to consider joining a $25 billion shareholder lawsuit against the government, court records show. The lawsuit does not argue that government help was not needed. It 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.”
In recent weeks, AIG has run a series of ads on network and cable television across the country thanking American taxpayers for saving it. AIG repaid the $182 billion, and the government sold its last stake in the company in August. The ads tout AIG’s role in recoveries from natural disasters, including $144 million in insurance claims it paid after the Joplin, Missouri tornadoes and $2 billion in claims it expects to pay to Hurricane Sandy victims. It also boasts that it is the “lead insurer” of the new World Trade Center and that taxpayers turned a profit on the bailout:

AIG CEO Robert H. Benmosche accompanied the ads with a letter to the New York Times, in which he wrote, “It is a result of our employees’ determination to repay America that A.I.G. not only supports our customers and employees but also contributes directly to the financial stability of the United States. Thank you, America.”
While Greenberg says the bailout hurt shareholders, government officials that spoke to the Times anonymously said the shareholders would have fared worse going through bankruptcy. And though Greenberg is correct in his reading of the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits government seizure of private property without fair compensation, AIG’s stock price at the time of the bailout was “slightly north of zero.”

AIG Says $182 Billion Taxpayer Bailout Was Too 'Onerous,' Threatens To Sue Government For Billions More | ThinkProgress

 

[Handsback]

Ya know I thought the Republicans had reached levels of a$$hole-ry that I previously thought impossible. This is even more impressive.

 

[tru_m.a.c]

Ya know I thought the Republicans had reached levels of a$$hole-ry that I previously thought impossible. This is even more impressive.

republicans???

 

[Robbie3000]

I gotta respect the balls it takes to do something like this. NH.

 

[Handsback]

republicans???

Ya know, our buddy Boehner being so cooperative and all with the cliff. And Bachmann wasting more time trying to repeal Obamacare. Lotta dikk moves happening in Congress these days.

 

[Hood Critic]

The audacity of these motherfukkers...just unbelievable.

 

[tru_m.a.c]

Ya know, our buddy Boehner being so cooperative and all with the cliff. And Bachmann wasting more time trying to repeal Obamacare. Lotta dikk moves happening in Congress these days.

oh i misread your statement

 

[franknitty711]

Both parties are in bed with the corporations (we all know that), so I don't think this has anything to do with that.

I don't care how surmountable the evidence is. You would have to be a complete idiot to rule in AIG favor if they really moved forward with this. I don't think it will happen.

 

[Midwest]

I can not believe what I just read. We bail HIS company out now he want to sue the gov for giving to much money???? I'm still trying to read where he tried to decline the money and the gov forced him to take it. fukkING SCUST.

 

[DEAD7]

 

[Brown_Pride]

... this seriously cannot be life.

We should have let the shyt collapse. IF they win go forward with this and win you'll never see a successful bailout again.

Beggars can't be choosers...but apparently they can sue you for giving them what they begged for once the dust settles.

 

[Colilluminati]

look at AIG yall

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

I'm FLABBERGASTED!!!!!!!!

 

[Kilgore Trout]

AIG Says $182 Billion Taxpayer Bailout Was Too 'Onerous,' Threatens To Sue Government For Billions More | ThinkProgress

J.P. Morgan sitting in hell like

 

[OsO]

this isnt AIGs fault. a greedy bank/corporation is going to do what is was made to do--make money.

it's the governments job to regulate the economic injustice. but instead they're taking a cut off the top and cooperating by consistently regulating in favor of elite money interests.

AIG is doin it's job, gettin as much money as it can.

it's the government that's fukking up. but as long as we keep re-electing them and not challenging their power theyre gonna continue like