Remind me again why Joseph Cassano is not in jail and why SEC settled accounting fraud charges when AIG was run by Greenberg? Anyway, should be interesting to watch Tim Geithner on the witness stand, not to mention the document discovery, which I’m sure the Empire’s judges will seal.

Dear USA,
Thank you for the money you gave us to save our cheating hides……now that we’ve (cough) re-paid it……can we have it BACK?
Sincerely Yours,
AIG

Agree 100%.

OTOH, this would likely be an “E ticket” ride. :-)

Too obscure for you younguns???

Dear AIG:

Screw you and the horse you rode in on.
Sincerely, and we mean that,
USA

I still don’t get why this is a story. It will be a story IF they actually sue. But as I understand it, it is their legal DUTY to “CONSIDER” joining any lawsuit brought by their shareholders as part of their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders.

No way they actually join the suit.

Their shareholders should be suing THEM not the US gubmint

Like the Disney reference. Matt Taibbi has an amusing take on this as usual.

Thanks, sometimes I get a blank stare from young people. Kinda like when I mention typewriters and carbon paper.

Good point OFG. OTOH, no reason we can’t throw dog fecies on their doorstep, just so they can see where WE stand.

I think here and now would be a marvelous place to commence the long overdue criminal prosecutions for the widespread fraud in the Great 2008 financial collapse bank heist.

The shareholders want damages? AIG wants damages do the words you would have been completely broke if you were not bailed out in the first place mean anything?
The Government has the right to sell their shares of AIG at a profit.

“…is AIG just counting on the American people not paying attention? “

That is generally a good bet.

“It’s also time to stop pretending the company has the country’s best interest at heart.”

Since when is “the country’s best interest” a part of the legal requirements of corporate governance or a part of any large corporation’s by-laws?

We need to constantly retain “top of mind awareness” that ordinary citizens will always be in an adversarial relationship with corporate governance.

The shareholders seem to want Obama to compensate them fully for their losses? Obama bailed them out some losses were to be expected but they were not deprived of their shares unlike GM shareholders who were told all their shares were worthless and then GM issued new shares.
If AIG wins this might set a precedent for GM share holders do the PTB want this precedent set? I don’t think so.

Of course that is the case vis a vis corporate governance. I was referencing AIG’s ad campaign where they wave the flag continually.

http://www.google.com/finance?cid=1093

click the link go to google finance click 5 years on the chart move cursor to top of the blue line $1,153.60 a share
jan 11, 2008 is what the shareholders I think want if they want their shares compensated to previous levels.
The shares now trade at $ 35.78 a share does AIG really want the government to defend itself from this lawsuit when a likely defense would be to point out AIG’s stock price was based on fraud, bad accounting and the bond rating agencies also giving AIG’s credit rating a very criminally neglectful high rating?
If the government has to defend itself from the lawsuit and can’t get it thrown out then they have to argue AIG was not worth $1,153.60 a share.
Which I feel they can easily do but in so doing they would be forced to expose AIG’s criminal acts.

Corporations are people my friends.
“You people” are not Corporate people and should not question our motives. We hide behind the Corporate veil when necessary and brag about our riches the rest of the time. If we can get money out of the Government we should because look at all the bottomsuckers who “want things” and get free lunches on us.

I’m not sure why y’all are worried. o will call the aig leaders in and behind closed doors work out an agreement where they will be compensated 2X the amount they are asking because o is such a good negotiator and nobody wants to see aig leaders prosecuted for all the crimes that they committed. After all, they’re not crooks, just ‘savvy businessmen.’

Oh hell, , just give it to them. Then maybe Hank Greenberg will crawl back in his hole.

As I have it, AIG is the insurance arm of the CIA. So it’s like the CIA suing the government for more $$, and since we have no accounting of how much they get in the first place, this is like throwing the money into a black hole wrapped in a dark enigma.

Latest news states AIG will NOT sue us.

…his very well appointed hole.

A couple points of context/background info:

1. It’s quite alright that AIG would consider involvement in relevant lawsuits. To completely ignore such obviously important lawsuits would actually be a much bigger management/governance issue.

2. This is a good reminder of how awful the bailouts were and the continuing problem posed by the same people being left in power. There actually is a major problem that happened that ‘cost’ AIG money: the government forced AIG to pay ‘face value’ on various obligations to companies like Goldman Sachs when the ‘market value’ of those payments was significantly less. This was such egregiously wrong that the Fed at the time (Bernanke, Geithner, and so forth) fought even the most basic transparency of disclosing the terms of the ‘deal’.

This was done because the whole point was to bail out the Wall Street fraudsters. AIG was just the conduit for funneling the money.

A few links with some details:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/01/ny-fed-told-aig-to-hide-details-of-swaps-payouts-to-banks.html
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/01/aig-scandal-fed-as-chump-or-fed-as-crony.html
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/01/fed-secrecy-claims-bogus.html
http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/07/01/cassano-ny-fed-negotiated-bad-deal-with-aig-counter-parties/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/25/fed-e-mails-on-aig-show-d_n_435431.html

Corrupt investors invest with corrupt Bankers who get insurance from corrupt insurance company based on ratings from corrupt rating agency and then get bailed out by corrupt Government essentially run by corrupt investors.