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 ...
No, Hank. You and a lot of other companies should have had your asses kicked all the way into bankruptcy court. That is the proper place for the remaining assets to have been sold off to pay the creditors in their proper legal order and let the shareholders have nice shiny stock certificates to use for wallpaper.
In no way should the managers and shareholders been bailed out or some politically connected bondholders been given priority over others of equal or greater legal standing.
If I was sitting on a jury, because someone gave this POS some hot lead for his stupid ass remarks and lawsuit.... I’d have to let the sh00ter go.
What a friggin typical hook-nosed douchebag!
I fear you don’t understand at all. Hank has a method, a process for going after the whole.
Spitzer turned out to be easy. The process is ongoing and a lawsuit during an election year involves discovery and leaks and serious problems for the bad guys. The destruction of AIG for criminal purposes is being revenged
I was aware of the ambiguity when I posted, I just misunderestimated human frailty ;)
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