New AIG CEO's Salary: $7M

CEO is 'committed' to firm's employees

(NEWSER) - AIG CEO Robert Benmosche isn’t fed up with running a government-controlled insurance giant after all: Backing away from his threat to quit, Benmosche said today that he remains "totally committed” to the company. The CEO conceded, however, that he and the board “are indeed frustrated” with the government’s restrictions on compensation, which he called a barrier to “restoring AIG’s value,” the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

Under fire for blunt talk, Benmosche pursues real passion: grapes

(NEWSER) - New AIG chief Robert Benmosche has garnered reams of bad coverage since taking over the train-wreck insurer—and nearly a month into the job, he's still at his holiday villa in Croatia. Reuters visited Benmosche at his coastal idyll and finds his true passion to be not finance but the Zinfandel grapes he's growing. "I want the estate I leave behind to be a viable business," Benmosche says—by which he means his vineyard, not bailed-out AIG. 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»

They say takeover violated investors' fifth amendment rights

(NEWSER) - Former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg is suing the US government for $25 million for having the effrontery to bail out the dying insurer. Greenberg was ousted in 2005 after allegedly cooking AIG’s books to inflate its value, but still had a keen interest in the company during the bailout, because his firm, Starr International Co., was its largest shareholder. Now Greenberg’s saying that the bailout of the firm violated shareholders’ constitutional rights, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

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»