Officials Knew of AIG Bonuses Months Before Firestorm

[kpete]

Source: Washington Post

Officials Knew of AIG Bonuses Months Before Firestorm


As American International Group chief executive Edward M. Liddy returns to Washington to face Congress today, new details are emerging about how long federal officials were aware of the company's recent bonus payments to its executives and of how inflammatory the payments could be.

Documents show that senior officials at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York received details about the bonuses more than five months before the firestorm erupted and were deeply engaged with AIG as well as outside lawyers, auditors and public relations firms about the potential controversy. But the New York Fed did not raise the alarm with the Obama administration until the end of February.

Timothy F. Geithner, who became Treasury secretary early this year, was the head of the New York Fed when it became aware of the bonus details. But his name is not among those of senior New York Fed officials mentioned in the summaries of phone calls, correspondence and other documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Those documents also illuminate who in the government, beyond the New York Fed, knew what about the bonuses at AIG's most troubled unit, and when.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/12/AR2009051203624.html?hpid=topnews

[ananda]

1. Geithner needs to go.

He should never have been appointed.

[OhioChick]

4. No shit. n/t

[pleah]

2. Screw the little guy, them rich folk have to be taken care of.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[jtrockville]

8. Trying to make a living VS trying to make a killing.

The fed doesn't work for us. The fed works for them.

[Metta]

3. Obama, Geithner, Summers, et. al. are reverse Robin Hoods.

So much for change. Happy karma.

[mbperrin]

5. And in more happy news, AIG admits taxpayers may never be repaid.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124222608733115433.html
The broad question for lawmakers was whether the company will ever be able to repay taxpayers for the aid put forth to prop up the firm. Liddy, when pressed for a guarantee that the government would not have to give AIG more money and that taxpayers would receive a 100% return on their investment, said he couldn't do either.

"The answer is very dependent on what happens to the overall financial marketplace," Mr. Liddy said. While the government aid received so far should be "sufficient" and the company's stated goal is to repay the U.S. government, it will depend on asset values and the health of the overall economy, he said.

"It will take somewhere between three and five years," Mr. Liddy said of repaying the government, assuming the economy does not deteriorate further.

[UpInArms]

7. "assuming the economy does not deteriorate further"

a.s.s.u.m.e

to make an "ass" out of "u" or "me"

[toopers]

6. I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who stated . . .

Government is, at best, a necessary evil.