AIG's insistence that it must pay out over $165 million in bonuses to, as the NY Times put it, "executives in the same business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year," has now drawn the ire of President Barack Obama and NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
AIG had cited legal obligations (the employees' contracts) as why they were bound to pay the bonuses, but Obama said he asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to see if they could be rescinded—you know, given that the U.S. had given the insurer $170 billion in rescue money. The President said, "This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed. Under these circumstances, it's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay. How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?" He also added, "All across the country, there are people who work hard and meet their responsibilities every day, without the benefit of government bailouts or multi-million dollar bonuses. And all they ask is that everyone, from Main Street to Wall Street to Washington, play by the same rules."
Since AIG is headquartered in NY, Cuomo wants the names and other details of the AIG employees who received bonuses. Cuomo sent a letter to AIG CEO Edward Liddy; you can read it here (PDF) but one part explains that the employee information is needed "in order to investigate and determine: (1) whether any of the individuals receiving such payments were involved in the conduct that led to AIG's demise and subsequent bailout." And to reporters, Cuomo pointed out, "If the taxpayer didn’t bail out AIG, those [employee] contracts wouldn’t be worth the paper they’re printed on."
