Posted on 05/16/2008 5:43:24 AM PDT by Brilliant
AIG shareholders gathered for the big insurer's annual meeting in New York on Wednesday, and the mood wasn't cheery. After a three-year experiment in Eliot Spitzer-imposed management that has cost them billions, more than a few shareholders were pining for the days of former CEO Hank Greenberg.
"He did a heck of a job," said one shareholder heading out of the meeting...
...while AIG is suing him for the accounting restatements it took after his departure, he is taking the highly unusual step of suing back. He claims the accounting changes were never justified...
A careful and lengthy look at the evidence available so far suggests he's right. It also suggests that the AIG case, like so many others that Mr. Spitzer brought, was an example of prosecutorial excess. Instead of uncovering some great fraud by a titan of industry, its main result has been to damage the company, and harm innocent managers and shareholders.
This sorry tale began in early 2005, when then-Attorney General Spitzer piggybacked on a federal investigation into a reinsurance deal between AIG and General Re. Mr. Spitzer hurled accusations of fraud against Mr. Greenberg on national television, but he never filed any criminal charges...
Mr. Spitzer also threatened AIG's board with a criminal charge against the firm if it didn't dismiss Mr. Greenberg. And so, on March 14, 2005, the board forced its patriarch out. Two months later, the company restated five years of financials and blamed "former senior management" for shoddy accounting. Early in 2006, AIG paid $1.6 billion to settle Mr. Spitzer's civil case...
Mr. Spitzer's successor as attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, is continuing to pursue the remaining civil charges. But more than three years after Mr. Spitzer's televised charges, we're still waiting for the evidence that Mr. Greenberg orchestrated a fraud...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Is there anybody in New York that Eliot Spencer DIDN’T screw?.......
If anyone wants to know what extortion by the government looks like, there it is.
I had AIG since 1996. I had to dump them in 2006 for a variety of reasons. One of them was they paid out for a minor parking lot incident where there were no witnesses. They denied me any input even with a non-conclusive police report. Then they upped my rates and made it more difficult to shop my coverage elsewhere. When I moved to FL from CT they upped the premium 50% on the same coverages, same vehicles, and same drivers.
Good Riddance AIG. Loyalty means nothing apparently.
A former co-worker of mine once said, in reference to the “gang related crime” wave, “There have ALWAYS been gangs. The Roman Empire was a “gang”, the Spanish Conquistadors were a “gang”, the Founding Fathers were a “gang”, the police are a “gang”. It all depends on who wins and who loses.”...............
ALLSTATE does, and did, the same thing. They dumped our homeowners insurance, never had any claims at all..........
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.