AIG HQ for sale as firm faces break-up after bonus fiasco
Some AIG staff who received bonuses from the recent $165m payout have returned the money, chief executive Ed Liddy said in congressional hearings.
He had asked those who had received bonuses larger than $100,000 to return at least 50% of the money. Some had offered to give up the entire payment.
He told legislators he had asked employees of AIG Financial Products – the arm that brought the group to the brink of collapse – to “step up and do the right thing”.
President Obama said he had “complete confidence” in Mr Geithner as the Treasury chief faced calls to quit from at least two Republican legislators. Republicans want to know why he did not challenge the bonuses before approving $30bn of fresh federal aid to AIG this month. Congressman Connie Mack said Mr Geithner “should either resign or be fired for the good of the country”.
Other AIG news
- Liddy intends to break up AIG in such a way that it will be unrecognisable when compared to the complex web of insurance and financial product businesses that it consists of today.
- AIG’s New York HQ is up for sale.
- US lawmakers will today vote on a new law to tax bonuses paid from any firm that has had at least $5 billion in public money. For executives at those largest firms, any compensation up to $250,000 a year would be taxed at their existing federal income tax levels. But any bonuses above that threshold would be taxed at 90%.
