Waxman to Paulson: AIG Is Still Being Irresponsible
Tuesday, October 07, 2008 at 4:05 pm
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee just spent a five-hour hearing detailing how American International Group gave millions in compensation to executives even as the world’s largest insurance company was posting huge losses.
AIG executives even spent $443,000 for a weeklong retreat at the St. Regis Resort at Monarch Beach, Calif. after the Treasury Dept. rescued the company with an $85-billion bailout.
As the hearing drew to a close, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), the committee chairman, began circulating a letter to Treasury Sec. Henry Paulson:
Today’ s hearing revealed that shortly after the bailout was signed, executives from AIG’ s major U.S. life insurance subsidiary, AIG American General, held a weeklong conference at an exclusive resort in California. The company spent nearly half a million dollars in a single week at this resort, including thousands o f dollars on catered banquets, golf outings and visits to the resort’s spa and salon.
The hearing also revealed that AIG continues to pay one million dollars a month to an official who helped bring about the company’ s downfall. This official, Joseph Cassano, is the former president of AIG’s Financial Products division, the unit that sold the credit default swaps that caused billions in losses for AIG. Mr. Cassano resigned from his position in March 2008. Yet AIG has inexplicably decided to pay Mr. Cassano up to $34 million in unvested bonuses. Even today, it is continuing to employ him as a “consultant” for one million dollars a month.
Secretary Paulson, this situation is unfair to taxpayers. AIG received $85 billion in taxpayer money, yet it continues to lavish its executives with undeserved payments and perquisites. We urge you to protect the taxpayers’ money and end this profligate spending.
Several committee members quickly signed off on Waxman’s letter, including Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.), who has been informally leading the Republican side in the probe into the financial crisis. The unity is notable as Republicans again spent much of today– as they did at a hearing yesterday on Lehman Bros. — arguing that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the primary reason for the crisis. But all committee members seemed appalled at the behavior of AIG’s executives.
9 Comments
Comment posted October 7, 2008 @ 4:28 pm
Are we, the taxpayers, going to sponsor the “CEO Golf Challange” this year since AIG has always sponsored it. Can we do something to see that AIG is not allowed to spend our money in this way?
Comment posted October 7, 2008 @ 5:55 pm
They should be charged for defying Congress ! Throw them in jail !
Comment posted October 7, 2008 @ 6:04 pm
This will be the start.Wait until in a decade's time you find out that the 700 billion dollars or whatever amount it is has actually removed other liabilities from these Companies Books. The end result will be that these executives can put their face back in the trough and claim massive bonuses whilst a number of politicians from both sides will be given massive kickbacks.To the US people, punish the ones responsible, your representatives.They are all running around blaming everyone but themselves.John McCain has been in the system forever and a day and now he decides he wants to fix it? Obama is a greenhorn who will manipulated by the bureaucrats and lobbyists.Vote for an independent and let the parties know your disgust at what happened.If not, then things will keep going on and before you know it the same thing will happen again in another decade and you will be 10 years older and closer to retirement. Good luck for the future.
Comment posted October 7, 2008 @ 8:36 pm
THE MOST IMPORTANT LETTER ALL CEO’s SHOULD RECEIVE
A NEEDED FIX IN ALL BOARD ROOMS
Isn't it time the system went in for some much needed repair?
Due diligence and oversight long ago slid out the window. No one was watching.
Time to do something about it.
Here's a huge one they all missed…. The dramatic change that swept through all of North America's boardrooms over the past 30 years. It is one of the underlying causes of the headache the economy is now feeling, but more importantly, it has resulted in the general feeling of “disconnect” by most Americans.
“WE THE SHAREHOLDERS OF YOUR COMPANIES……
http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/03/let…
Comment posted October 7, 2008 @ 11:37 pm
The funny thing is, is that there were Representatives on the house floor warning that EXACTLY this kind of thing would happen. Look up “Brad Sherman on bailout Pt1″ on YouTube.com, At 7:40 in the video you will hear him say: “Learn how this bill bails out firms that will continue to pay million dollar a month salaries, and could raise those executives to a million and a half a month, should they choose to do so.” All 3 parts of his speech on The House floor are worth watching. In part 2 he explains even further why the wording in the bill allows for exactly this scenario to happen. The public was very vocal about their opposition to this bill (myself among them.) Representatives like Brad Sherman, Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, Thaddeus McCotter, Marcy Kaptur, and Michael Burgess, all had the courage to speak out against this bill. Meanwhile, one of my Senators, Diann Feinstein, had the nerve to say that of 91,000 correspondences from her constituents, 85,000 opposed the bill, but we were all just confused!!! What an outrage! I think everyone needs to wake up to the fact that this bill was not about helping the economy in the first place. It was about jamming bad legislation down our throats, bailing out the White Houses friends on Wall Street, using fear tactics to force us to accept it, and then have us pick up the expense! For those who care, this bill was about consolidating power within the Treasury, bypassing Congress (that is our voice in government) and granting near dictatorial powers to the Secretary of the Treasury. Here's one of my favorite parts:
“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”
Furthermore, the bill died in Congress the first time it was voted on, and for good reason. Then the Senate rams it through and adds $150 billion more to the tab. They say they added tax cuts and tax payer protection to the bill, but in reality they just attached other bills to the bailout, THAT WERE ALREADY SUPPOSED TO BE VOTED ON in the senate. In other words, they held the tax cuts and tax payer protections hostage, threatening not to pass them unless Congress passed the bailout bill. Also the entire process was not legal according to the Constitution, because bills regarding taxes must originate in the House of Representatives. In fact there is nothing good about this bill at all. Every single one of us should be absolutely outraged and should hold our Senators and Representatives accountable. If they voted for this bill make sure you vote them out of office. If they voted against it, then make sure not only to vote them back in, but take a moment out of your day and contact them, and let them know how much you appreciate them going to bat for you and your country.
Comment posted October 9, 2008 @ 12:45 pm
Earlier today, AIG announced an important policy change – one that we wanted to be sure you knew about.
A short time ago, our Chairman and CEO Ed Liddy said that he has ordered the immediate cancellation of all outside meetings, conferences, and recognition events across AIG, except those that are required by law or that are deemed absolutely critical to sustain our ongoing business needs.
Given AIG's commitment to our customers, business partners, regulators, and American taxpayers, coupled with the new and very different challenges our company now faces, we take these responsibilities extremely seriously. Their trust is critical to our success. We recognize the need to be sensitive about all company expenditures.
As we move forward, we will continue our focus our efforts to pay back the $85 billion loan from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as quickly as possible.
Comment posted October 9, 2008 @ 7:45 pm
Earlier today, AIG announced an important policy change – one that we wanted to be sure you knew about.
A short time ago, our Chairman and CEO Ed Liddy said that he has ordered the immediate cancellation of all outside meetings, conferences, and recognition events across AIG, except those that are required by law or that are deemed absolutely critical to sustain our ongoing business needs.
Given AIG's commitment to our customers, business partners, regulators, and American taxpayers, coupled with the new and very different challenges our company now faces, we take these responsibilities extremely seriously. Their trust is critical to our success. We recognize the need to be sensitive about all company expenditures.
As we move forward, we will continue our focus our efforts to pay back the $85 billion loan from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as quickly as possible.
Comment posted May 31, 2011 @ 5:00 pm
Bernanke had arrived on Capitol Hill for what was billed as a Senate hearing on the federal budget.
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