AIG’s lawyer accused former boss of lies and false testimony
AIG’s lawyer Ted Wells called the firm’s former boss Maurice “Hank” Greenberg “a liar” and accused him of fabricating evidence in the $4.3bn court case against Starr International (Sico), the FT reports.
Sico’s lawyers David Boies called Wells’ words “harsh”. He said AIG was dishonest for claiming Starr was a trust created by AIG to support the company and paying its managers.
He said it was intended for charitable purposes, was not required to only compensate AIG managers and questioned why the terms of the trust appeared nowhere in AIG’s financial reports.
“You don’t have a multi-billion dollar trust that exists for 35 years and nobody knows about it until lawyers make a claim,” Boies said. “I think they should get zero.”
False testimony claim
Wells accused Mr Greenberg of giving false testimony to a federal court and forging meeting minutes and memos to blur the purpose of the trust.
Mr Wells said that the 84-year-old acted as if he could “walk through raindrops and not be touched” and that he had disrespected the witness stand by dodging questions and lying under oath.
Bloomberg reported Wells telling the jury: “He fabricated evidence. He lied from the witness stand. What he told you is not credible evidence. Mr. Greenberg gave you false testimony repeatedly.”
“These aren’t small lies,” Wells said. “These are big lies. There’s a certain arrogance, almost as if I can say anything.”
