Loren Steffy

A business blog

Former AIG exec sues the government over bailout








Loren Steffy

16 Responses

  1. [...] Former AIG exec sues the government over bailout – Houston Chronicle (blog)By GN Business  | Published: 2011-11-22 14:34:35 UTC | Read more, click here | Read page Tweet     [...]

  2. Bobo Amerigo says:

    Yeah, occupy that puffy head, too.

    • Bart-1 says:

      4 more years, 4 MORE YEARS!! How’s That “Hope and Change” thing workin’ out for ya’ America?

    • joe says:


      The bailouts were orchestrated by the Bush administration and the rest of the republicans in the legislature. You could be forgiven on some level for thinking it was Obama and the Democrats, because the Republican propaganda machine has done such a good job on this particular topic; more than 50% of the country believes the exact wrong thing, just like you: that the bailouts were the result of democrats, and not republicans.

  3. [...] YORK (CNNMoney) — The former head of the American International Group sued the US … Former AIG exec sues the government over bailout Houston Chronicle [...]

  4. TruthSeeker says:

    I don’t understand, AIG value was $25 billions why would the US government pumps $180 billions into it? Where does the difference go?

    We have separation of church and state, why can’t we have separation of bank and state?

    “Privatize gain, socialize loss”, has this been the definition of US capitalism all along?

  5. Bob says:

    While I tend to agree that this lawsuit is laughable, do you not think Greenberg at least brings up a valid point? Why should our government be allowed to take over companies? Perhaps it was in the greater good that the government bailed out AIG but what’s next. Is our government going to nationalize oil companies because they don’t like fossil fuels? Is our government going to take over farms because they don’t like fertilizers running into the water supply? Unreasonable you say? Our government is now telling restaurants what kind of food they can serve and how they should prepare the food. Our government has become an out of control social engineering entity trying to regulate almost every part of our lives. We are losing bits of freedom every single day under this regime.

    • Loren Steffy says:

      Bob: The point here is that AIG assumed risk it couldn’t bear and compromised the entire financial system in the process. It wasn’t a question of the government “not liking” it.

    • SaltWaterCroc says:

      Bob – if the government hadn’t intervened, the AIG would have gone belly up and it’s stock would have been worthless. That, and Goldman Sachs would have lost billions. Couldn’t have the Vampire Squid lose money, so AIG was “bailed out” and billions in turn went to GS.

    • Bob says:


      As your probably aware the government regulates financial services companies. When performing an audit, regulators routinely look at the risk of the portfolio and concentration risk in markets, customers, products, etc. In this case, Tim Geithner was responsible for monitoring AIG. For AIG to assume risk it couldn’t bear – over several years so there was most certainly knowledge of this risk by Geithner et al – the government was most certainly complicit in the risk taking. There are also rumors that AIG was told by Geithner to limit disclosure of this risk. So we have a government complicit in tacitly approving massive risk and then taking over a company when the bottom falls out due to the risk. At best, this seems like a major conflict of interest, especially where Geithner is concerned. I’m sure you have friends in New York. Why don’t you ask around about Geithner’s quid pro quo reputation.

  6. Reggie says:

    Wall Street execs concerned about shareholders other than themselves. LOL. There’s a legal concept called estoppel that Greenberg will be hearing soon. He can’t complain about lost value from a government “taking” when that “taking” saved his company from becoming valueless.

    Besides, wasn’t the bailout negotiated? Greenberg and the BOD could have said “No” (like Ford did), and kept government ownership out of AIG. Or it could have done something crazy like make responsible investments instead of high-risk bets.

  7. Gimme Back My Money says:

    Greenberg left AIG in 2005, the government stepped in in 2008.

  8. bbains says:

    As much as I’d like to see a federal judge (and a jury) rip Greenberg and his lawyers a new one, I hope this suit goes nowhere and that there are no more taxpayer dollars wasted on this jackass.

  9. Jennifer says:

    As a former employee, I would like to sue Mr. Greenburg for not doing his due diligence regarding the Division of the company in London that sold the credit default swaps that brought the company down in the first place. I kept my company stock due to the diversified portfolio of businesses AIG had along with its foreign market exclusivity. As a result, I lost half of the value of my hard earned money. Its my mistake, but since we are blaming others then I think former employees and shareholders should sue Mr. Greenburg.

    Isn’t it interesting that an insurance executive allowed his company to be destroyed because he did not do a better job of diversifying risk?

  10. [...] $25 billionChicago TribuneAIG ex-chief’s company sues government over bailoutLos Angeles TimesFormer AIG exec sues the government over bailoutHouston Chronicle (blog)BusinessWeek -Fox Businessall 327 news [...]

  11. [...] Hill (blog)Former AIG Exec Sues Federal Government For $ 25 Billion Over TakeoverNPR (blog)Houston Chronicle (blog) -AFP -Beacon Equity Researchall 329 news [...]