AIG CEO Cuts His Pay to $1

Watchdog says TARP spending aided France, Germany

(NEWSER) - A big slice of the $700 billion in bailout funds the US poured into the financial system ended up helping foreign companies, according to a report from a congressional watchdog agency. Because the Treasury Department failed to gather enough information on the flow of money, it ended up taking on risk that should have been shouldered by France and Germany, according to the Congressional Oversight Panel. More»

Geithner, Paulson face grilling over 'backdoor bailouts' for AIG clients

(NEWSER) - Two Federal Reserve governors expressed their unease about the Fed's rejection of a plan to force big banks to return $30 billion in cash they received from AIG before its bailout in late 2008. The officials warned that the decision to let the banks, including Goldman Sachs, keep the collateral they paid AIG on credit insurance contracts might be "a gift" to the firms, according to documents obtained by the New York Times. More»

Ex-gov wants answers before feds ditch their stake

(NEWSER) - The Treasury Department's shopping its 80% stake in AIG, but before it sells, all Eliot Spizter wants for Christmas is for the financial behemoth to finally disclose exactly how it triggered the financial crisis. "Who knew what, and when? Who benefited, and by exactly how much?," questions the ex-gov, writing in a New York Times op-ed with Frank Partnoy and William Black. The answers, they write, lie "in the "trove of email messages still backed up on AIG servers"—and it's time for them to see daylight. More»

He's accused of handing AIG creditors 'backdoor bailout'

(NEWSER) - Tim Geithner did a lousy job of looking out for the interests of taxpayers during the AIG bailout last year, according to a report from a federal oversight group. Geithner, then head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, made no attempt to renegotiate AIG's debts, effectively giving the insurer's creditors a "backdoor bailout," the report found. More»

(NEWSER) - Robert Benmosche has been at the head of AIG for 48 hours now, so naturally it's time for a vacation. The new CEO of the four-times-bailed-out insurer is leaving for his 8,000-square foot villa on the Adriatic for the next two weeks. "It’s probably not a propitious time for an incoming CEO to begin with a vacation," one HR manager tells Bloomberg. More»