Free Republic

CBS NEWS has learned that former AIG executive Joseph Cassano - the prime focus of the investigation into its collapse - will meet with Department of Justice attorneys next week in what will likely be an end to the two year criminal investigation into the company. Sources tell CBS News that the criminal case against Cassano - once called "the Man who Crashed the World" - has "hit a brick wall" - meaning that it is likely no one will be held criminally liable for the downfall of the company that triggered a $182 billion dollar federal bailout. Sources tell...

They were frightened for a long time, then suddenly they were angry. For millions of Americans, anxiety about a jobless, debt-laden future turned to disbelief when it emerged that AIG, the company at the centre of the world’s financial crisis, was handing out £300m in bonuses. It was the superpower’s Sir Fred moment. Just as Britain reacted with fury to the disclosure that Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension pot had been doubled as his bank neared collapse, so the US was shocked. The death threats came soon after. “I want them dead!” said one of a stream of messages that caused...

WASHINGTON, Mar 30, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- U.S. investigators are looking into possible criminal fraud by a former American International Group Inc. executive, ABC News reported Monday. Federal prosecutors and FBI agents are investigating Joseph Cassano, 54, who ran AIG's Financial Products Division, the U.S. network reported. The department lost hundreds of billions of dollars and Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., told ABC Cassano "almost single-handedly is responsible for bringing AIG down and by reference the economy of this country." ABC said its own investigation determined Cassano set up dozens of companies -- some off-shore -- to keep transactions off...

The global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution

In the case of A.I.G., the virus exploded from a freewheeling little 377-person unit in London, and flourished in a climate of opulent pay, lax oversight and blind faith in financial risk models. It nearly decimated one of the world’s most admired companies, a seemingly sturdy insurer with a trillion-dollar balance sheet, 116,000 employees and operations in 130 countries. The insurance giant’s London unit was known as A.I.G. Financial Products, or A.I.G.F.P. It was run with almost complete autonomy, and with an iron hand, by Joseph J. Cassano, according to current and former A.I.G. employees.