Posted on 11/21/2011 2:21:58 PM PST by lbryce
The former head of the American International Group sued the U.S. government for $25 billion on Monday, claiming officials should have bailed out AIG instead of taking it over.
Maurice "Hank" Greenberg and his Starr International Company accused officials of discriminating against AIG.
"The government is not empowered to trample shareholder and property rights even in the midst of a financial emergency," Starr alleges in the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C.
Starr also sued the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in federal district court in Manhattan.
A top Treasury Department official denied Starr's claims.
"It is important to remember that the government provided assistance to AIG -- and stopped it from collapsing -- in order to prevent a meltdown of the entire global financial system," Tim Massad, assistant secretary for financial stability, said in a statement.
Starr, based in Switzerland, says it was the largest AIG shareholder at the time of the government's takeover in September 2008, at the peak of the financial crisis following the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Starr accuses the government of seizing an 80% interest in AIG's common stock and then using the insurer as a vehicle to provide "backdoor bailouts" to other companies. This was after the government denied AIG the loans and other forms of assistance it was providing to other firms.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
The chutzpah, testicular fortitude, avarice of this man...
The government should not bail out or take over any business. ever.
Wrong, Greenberg. You shouldn’t have gotten a handout OR a takeover. You should have gotten a kiss-off and a kick in the seat.
I don’t know why the government doesn’t just rule that every one of the credit default swaps written against any U.S. corporation is hereby null and void. Every single “contract” is an illegal contract, since the holder has no insurable interest in the company the insurance (bet) was written on.
Those contracts are a tsunami of financial hurt that are about to wipe out the entire global economy.
The got "provided assistance" to AIG so he bankrupt firm could pay off claims to European banks. It was a disguised bailout of foriegn financial concerns - at American taxapyer expense.
WHERE DO THESE OWS PUNKS GET THIS RIDICULOUS SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT???
Used to be an AIG middle level exec’s kid on my daughter’s soccer team. Unreliable, arrogant asshat.
Had you not bought every business that had a pulse to add on to your empire and concentrated on running what you already controlled we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Bye the way where the Hell is my money from my GM bond that Obama devalued and gave to the unions?
But what was her father like?
Ba-DumDum
(Sorry, couldn’t resist)
;-)
AIG naked shorted puts on lots of European entities. If AIG had failed, we’d have had the current Euro-crisis on top of that year’s Lehman crisis. And would’ve been fine, because by now, the decks would’ve been cleared, and growth could resume. Instead we have crap economies on both sides of the Atlantic.
AIG should have been left to die. No bailout, no takeover.
Don’t be too hasty with Hank. He was pushed out of AIG years before they started the insurance of CDRs so wantonly. It was the execs that replaced him that convinced the board to oust him and his sons because he was too old and conservative with respect to insuring bad mortgages.
Hank has what many FReepers wish they had in this case; standing, money, a grudge and a too old to give damn attitude.
This lawsuit could bring much to the surface that should be seen.
Old Hank screwed Eliot Spitzer to the wall.
The Democrats are now being drug into court where it will all go on display.
Mark
——maybe some of the Chrysler and GM bond holders will be able to sue the UAW ——
Why some? Why not all of us bond holders?
The AIG bailout occurred in Sept, 2008.
Eliot Spitzer attorney general of New York destroyed Hank Greenburg and got him ousted.
With him gone AIG then became a tool of the democrats and the vehicle for insuring the bundled garbage. Barney Frank and Chris Dodd had legislated that banks were either to make bad loans of suffer. AIG was modified to be able to buttress all the junk and get it sold, out of sight, out of mind
The Democrat party is a criminal enterprise. It will all come out in court
Then, recall that ol hank is a billionaire. He spent a ton of money getting the goods on Elliot Spitzer and doing him in.
I was being snide. Why not everyone screwed over by the regime and their union crony thugs?
Mark
Then, recall that ol hank is a billionaire. He spent a ton of money getting the goods on Elliot Spitzer and doing him in.
Yeah lets compare nailing someone for paying for sex with billions in losses at taxpayers expense...real even trade.
The chutzpah, testicular fortitude, avarice of this man...
The more I thought about it, the more I like the entire thing. Just think for a moment what 'discovery' will be like! Could end up shining spotlights on a lot of roaches!
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