About that AIG Thank you America Ad. (updated)
You’ve probably all seen this ad from AIG, “thanking” America for their bailout…
Before you get all warm and fuzzy over their apparent gratitude…
AIG: Thank You America, But We May Sue You
The ink has barely dried on the Treasury Department’s final sale of American International Group shares, and now it appears the insurer is considering joining former CEO Maurice (Hank) Greenberg’s shareholder suitagainst Uncle Sam.
The lawsuit, filed in 2011, alleges that the federal government used AIG to execute a “backdoor bailout” of Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs Group,Merrill Lynch and others. A portion of the money used to rescue AIG was steered toward settling credit default swap contracts with those firms for 100 cents on the dollar. (See “Greenberg Suit Slams U.S. For Backdoor Bailout.”)
Looks like they’ve got newly minted senator Elizabeth Warrens attention too…
“Beginning in 2008, the federal government poured billions of dollars into AIG to save it from bankruptcy. AIG’s reckless bets nearly crashed our entire economy. Taxpayers across this country saved AIG from ruin, and it would be outrageous for this company to turn around and sue the federal government because they think the deal wasn’t generous enough,” said Warren in a statement. “Even today, the government provides an ongoing, stealth bailout, propping up AIG with special tax breaks — tax breaks that Congress should stop. AIG should thank American taxpayers for their help, not bite the hand that fed them for helping them out in a crisis.”
Hank Paulson needs to go to Jail.
As Treasury secretary, Hank Paulson gave private briefings to top financial firms
What on earth did Hank Paulson think his job was in the summer of 2008? As far as most of us were concerned, he was secretary of the US Treasury, answerable to the US people and to the president. But at the same time, in secret meetings, Paulson was hanging out with his old Goldman Sachs buddies, giving them invaluable information about what he was thinking in his new job.
The first news of this behavior came in October 2009, when Andrew Ross Sorkin revealed that Paulson had met with the entire board of Goldman Sachs in a Moscow hotel suite for an hour at the end of June 2008. He told them his views of the US and global economies, he previewed a market-moving speech he was about to give, and he even talked about the possibility that Lehman Brothers might blow up. Maybe it’s not so surprising that Goldman Sachs turned out to be so well positioned when Lehman did indeed do just that a few months later.
Today we learn that the Goldman meeting in Moscow was not some kind of aberration. A few weeks later, on July 28 2008, Paulson met with a who’s who of the hedge-fund world in the headquarters of Eton Park Capital Management — a fund founded by former Goldman superstar Eric Mindich.
