We’re learning a bit more about the breakdown of those AIG bonuses — thanks to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
In a letter sent to House Financial Services chair Barney Frank, Cuomo, who is probing the awards, wrote that seventy-three members of AIG’s financial products unit were paid more than $1 million each.
And get this: Though the payments were called “retention” bonuses, 11 of those 73 millionaires, including one who got $4.6 million, are no longer even at AIG.
So if, as AIG has claimed, the bonuses were handed out for the purpose of holding on to talented employees, they often didn’t succeed in doing so.
Continuing the breakdown, Cuomo wrote that one lucky employee got more than $6.4 million, seven received more than $4 million each, and the top ten raked in a combined $42 million. None of the recipients were named.
Cuomo, who is also looking into the $3-4 billion paid out by Merill Lynch in bonuses, wrote in the letter:
A.I.G. made more than 73 millionaires in the unit which lost so much money that it brought the firm to its knees forcing a taxpayer bailout. Something is deeply wrong with this outcome.
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