Posted on 03/30/2009 8:02:48 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
Joseph Cassano Made More Than $300 Million at the Insurance Firm He Virtually Bankrupted
The FBI and federal prosecutors are reportedly closing in on the AIG executive whose suspect investments cost the insurance giant hundreds of billions of dollars. The government is investigating whether or not 54-year old Brooklyn-native Joseph Cassano committed criminal fraud in virtually bankrupting the company.
"He almost single-handedly is responsible for bringing AIG down and by reference the economy of this country," said Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Ca.)
Cassano, who lives in London, made more than $300 million running the infamous Financial Products Division of AIG where he, with about a dozen others, committed AIG to insure what turned out to be more than a trillion dollars worth of junk quality loans held by banks.
"He is the golden boy of the casino," said Rep. Speier. "They basically took peoples' hard earned money and threw it away, gambled it and lost everything. And he must be held accountable for the fraud, for the dereliction of his duty, and for the havoc that he's wrought on America."
When approached by ABC News outside of his London home Cassano said he did not want to talk about the allegations against him.
Cassano Received $1M a Month Even After He Was Fired From AIG After the huge losses became known, Cassano was fired from AIG in early 2008, but he still received a salary of $1 million a month until Congress intervened. AIG has received about a $180 billion in bailout funds so far.
"AIG was insuring junk and it was the AIG insurance that made the junk marketable," said tax law expert Jack Blum. "American taxpayers have been put on the hook for this insurance junk."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Geithner made a statement the other day about the AIG policy holders not getting a full pay out on claims.
Renaming insurance with a non-insurance name and selling it without adequate reserves—without even calculating adequate reserves—is or should be insurance fraud.
Here it comes:
Former AIG exec draws scrutiny - Federal prosecutors and FBI agents are investigating Joseph Cassano
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2218631/posts
Fom Wikipedia:
Greenberg served in the US Army in WWII and helped liberate Dachau and is/was member of the CFR
“Interaction with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
On September 20, 2006, the Council on Foreign Relations hosted a small meeting of select council members with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. While giving his speech, President Ahmadinejad expressed doubt that the holocaust had occurred. Greenberg responded: “Listen, I went through Dachau during the war. To suggest it didn’t occur is simply a lie.” President Ahmadinejad responded by asking if Greenberg was old enough to have participated in the liberation of Dachau.
“Fraud allegations
On March 15, 2005, AIG’s board forced Greenberg to resign from his post as Chairman and CEO under the shadow of criticism from Eliot Spitzer, attorney general of the state of New York. On May 26, 2005, as part of a series of actions against leaders of large corporations, Spitzer filed a complaint against Greenberg, AIG, and Howard I. Smith (ex-CFO of AIG) alleging fraudulent business practice, securities fraud, common law fraud, and other violations of insurance and securities laws. Greenberg’s public statements show that he found the Spitzer investigation to be very troubling. He maintained his innocence throughout the investigation, and alluded to the possibility that Eliot Spitzer might be conducting a high-profile witch-hunt in the interests of furthering his political ambitions.
“Criminal charges
After a subsequent investigation, however, all criminal charges were dropped, and Greenberg was not held responsible for any crimes. The State Attorney General’s office however is still pursuing Mr. Greenberg in civil court for many of these same criminal allegations.
“Civil charges
Spitzer did, however, bring civil charges against Greenberg, though he dropped two of the six initial charges in September, 2006.[3] Greenberg’s attorney claimed vindication with the dropping of the two charges, but Spitzer’s office maintained that the four remaining charges are the core of the State’s original charges.”
Yeah. I heard about this guy in a bar in NY tonight. In London and can’t touch him.
There is a concept in law call “common commercial practice”. Example if a government contract specifies paint the battery in accordance to common commercial practices, the vendor in the battery business knows what this means. Try using paint not commonly used in commercial practice, the contract can be void. Question for AIG when they embarked on all this high risk scheme with other people’s money and package it as a normal investment, is it within the definition of “common commercial practice”. Example if I start a mutual fund that is rated low risk, and common commercial practice is no more than 1 percent of the assets are leveraged, and on Sep 2008 the fund collapses because I decided to leverage up to 10 percent of the fund assets in order to be competitive with other funds, am I incompetent or fraudulant???
Fox and Friends reported that this morning
yep see post 24, I’m not suggesting any conspiracy, just pehaps ironic, Spitzer thought he knew what was better for the public by taking down Greenberg, disaster reults, now Obama is acting like Spitzer with likely same results.
I suspect that the old "Rich Fat Republican" myth is exactly that... a myth. And yet the GOP is going to end up being blamed for all of this mess when it's clear the Libtards have infiltrated the last bastion of Capitalist Conservatism - Wall Street.
Never mind whether what he did was legal or illegal - HE GAMBLED AND LOST!
Obviously, he should be executed for this crime! /sarc
I what this man did was legal (but stupid), then the jackasses in congress are the criminals - they violated their oaths to uphold the constitution, and instead raped the taxpayer to bail out AIG and its banker creditors.
I'll stop ranting now.
Cassano, Joseph
Westport, CT 06880
AIG Financial Products Corp/Fincial OBAMA, BARACK (D)
President
OBAMA VICTORY FUND $2,500
primary 07/24/08
Cassano, Joseph
Westport, CT 06880
AIG Financial Products Corp/Fincial OBAMA, BARACK (D)
President
OBAMA FOR AMERICA $2,300
primary 01/10/08
CASSANO, JOSEPH
WESTPORT, CT 06880
AIG/PRESIDENT BAUCUS, MAX (D)
Senate - MT
FRIENDS OF MAX BAUCUS $2,000
primary 03/16/07
CASSANO, JOSEPH
WESTPORT, CT 06880
AIG FINANCIAL/PRESIDENT & CEO DODD, CHRISTOPHER J (D)
Senate - CT
FRIENDS OF CHRIS DODD $2,100
primary 11/22/06
Cassano, Joseph
Westport, CT 06880
AIG Financial DODD, CHRISTOPHER J (D)
President
CHRIS DODD FOR PRESIDENT INC $2,100
primary 11/22/06
Cassano, Joseph
Westport, CT 06880
AIG Financial Products/President/CE JOHNSON, NANCY L. (R)
House (CT 05)
JOHNSON FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE $2,000
general 07/26/06
CASSANO, JOSEPH
WESTPORT, CT 06880
AIG FINANCIAL PRODUCTS DODD, CHRISTOPHER J (D)
Senate - CT
FRIENDS OF CHRIS DODD $718
primary 04/28/04
CASSANO, JOSEPH
WESTPORT, CT 06880
AIG FINANCIAL PRODUCTS DODD, CHRISTOPHER J (D)
Senate - CT
FRIENDS OF CHRIS DODD $1,200
primary 04/18/04
CASSANO, JOSEPH
WESTPORT, CT 06880
AIG FINANCIAL PRODUCTS DODD, CHRISTOPHER J (D)
Senate - CT
98 FRIENDS OF CHRIS DODD $1,000
primary 07/10/98
Not to mention the 5 trillion in debt owned or guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie.
ARrrrrgggghhhhh! Dang fat fingers!
You know, I'm so sick of this shit w/ AIG I don't even care what they do. Some idiots screw up and it effects thousands of employees in the company and in a bad way.
Cassano’s wife, Ellen Hooker
Hooker, Ellen P
WESTPORT, CT
06880 $2,300 01/18/2008 P OBAMA FOR AMERICA - Democrat
Hooker, Ellen
WESTPORT, CT
06880 N/A $2,100 11/22/2006 P CHRIS DODD FOR PRESIDENT INC - Democrat
I agree.
AIG Insurance Policies.
CASSANO, JOSEPH
WESTPORT,CT 06880 AIG FINANCIAL PRODUCTS CORP/FINCIAL 1/10/08 $2,300 Obama, Barack (D)
Cassano, Joseph
Westport,CT 06880 AIG Financial Products Corp 7/31/08
$2,300 Obama, Barack (D)
CASSANO, JOSEPH
WESTPORT,CT 06880 AIG FINANCIAL 11/22/06 $2,100 Dodd, Chris (D)
CASSANO, JOSEPH
WESTPORT,CT 06880 AIG/PRESIDENT 3/16/07 $2,000 Baucus, Max (D)
Cassano, Joseph
Westport,CT 06880 AIG Financial Products Corp/Fincial 7/24/08 $200 DNC Services Corp (D)
before the hoopla of 2007-2008, Cassano already was in deep water with the regulators. 2004 allegations filed against Cassano, which were subsequently swept under the rug via an $80 million settlement between AIG and the SEC/DOJ, contained some serious charges:
The complaint alleged that AIG-FP PAGIC [Cassano’s group] violated federal securities laws by aiding and abetting securities law violations by a public company, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (”PNC”), in connection with a transaction entered into in 2001 with PNC that was intended to enable PNC to remove certain assets from its balance sheet. The complaint alleged that AIG-FP PAGIC knew, or was deliberately ignorant in not knowing, that the PNC transaction did not satisfy the requirements of GAAP for non-consolidation of special purpose entities.
After the $80 million settlement, the complaint was dismissed “with prejudice after the DOJ and SEC agreed not to prosecute AIG or AIG-FP in connection with the PNC transactions.” Hillariously, again like in the Madoff debacle, the ultimate guilty party may again end up being the SEC. And while the Madoff fallout impacted a bunch of high net worth individuals, the SEC’s light treatment of Cassano’s infraction resulted in the collapse of the financial system. Yet somehow, none of the individuals who are responsible for Madoff’s and Cassano’s $600 billion in combined losses (and the financial system’s utter collapse) are behind bars...
Cassano was just a funnelanyway. Freddie and Fannie, Gorelick and company, are the true critters behind this mess, and going after Cassano is simply a method of diversion away from the real culprits right in our own government, including the State Senators from the 5 states that have the highest residential mortgage defaults: Florida, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin and Colorado.Without those states we would not have much of a mortgage crisis, and the Senatators greased the rails for the subprime mortgages in their respective states. Harry Reid was the busiest little clam, Nevada has a 48% residential mortgage default rate.
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