AIG

AIG's PR Blitz

Zachary Roth | April 3, 2009, 1:53PM

So as we reported yesterday, longtime AIG CEO Hank Greenberg went before Congress and placed the blame for the firm's collapse squarely on the execs who took over after he left in 2005 -- including on the crew currently at the helm, who Greeenberg said should be replaced.

But we've been struck by the ferocity of AIG's response to Greenberg, who's been skirmishing with the firm pretty much since he stepped down. Despite its awkward position as a ward of the state -- not to mention as the prime corporate face of the greed and recklessness that caused the financial crisis -- AIG has mounted an aggressive public-relations counter-offensive.

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AIG

Greenberg To Kanjorski: "May I Finish?"

Zachary Roth | April 2, 2009, 2:56PM

Here's one more interesting extended exchange from Hank Greenberg's testimony, in which the former AIG honcho is being questioned by Rep. Paul Kanjorski about regulation of the firm's financial products unit London office, and about how AIG should be regulated going forward.

At one point, the witness, clearly not used to being ordered around, asks Kanjorski exasperatedly, "May I finish?" -- a request the congressman ignores.

Watch:

AIG

Greenberg: Get Rid Of AIG Management

Zachary Roth | April 2, 2009, 2:19PM

More nuggets of news from Hank Greenberg's testimony before Congress....

Greenberg, with the prominent Washington lawyer David Boies at his side, declared that government efforts to rescue AIG -- taxpayers now own almost 80 percent of the insurance giant -- have failed. He said that that stake should be reduced to 15 percent, and that the company should be restructured, and current management should be removed.

Greenberg has been embroiled in legal wrangling with AIG almost since his 2005 departure from the firm, amid allegations of accounting improprieties.

He also quarreled with AIG's decision, apparently blessed by the government, to pay back in full its counter-parties on the credit default swaps.

It would have been more beneficial for the American taxpayer if the federal government had walled off AIG Financial Products...and provided guarantees to AIGFP's counterparties rather than putting up billions of dollars in cash collateral to those counterparties.

And asked by Rep. Rep. Elijah Cummings whether he took any responsibility for the firm's collapse, Greenberg replied flatly: "No I don't."

AIG

Greenberg: "We Had No Problem Controlling Cassano

Zachary Roth | April 2, 2009, 2:00PM

Asked about whether Joe Cassano was given a free hand at AIGFP, Hank Greenberg, the former AIG CEO who stepped down in 2005, told Congress:

I'm sorry if you can't believe it, but I'm telling you, we had no problem controlling Cassano.

AIG

Greenberg To Taxpayers: Drop Dead

Zachary Roth | April 2, 2009, 11:43AM

Nice guy, that Hank Greenberg.

Here, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) asks the former AIG CEO whether he'd be willing to use a separate company that Greenberg has stocks in to pay back taxpayers for AIG's bailout.

And Greenberg pretty much tells him to shove it.

Watch:

AIG

Greenberg: AIGers "Got Greedy"

Zachary Roth | April 2, 2009, 10:35AM

Greenberg:

You don't have control, and you don't have management oversight, things can go wrong. And they did.

...

I think they got greedy. I think they wrote considerably more business than they should have.

Hard to argue with that. But it only happened after Greenberg left, of course.

Also: this is coming from the man whose net worth was rated by Forbes at $3.6 billion in 2004.

AIG

Greenberg: Managers Failed (After I Left)

Zachary Roth | April 2, 2009, 10:30AM

From Hank Greenberg's testimony in front of Congress, which just started:

AIG's business model did not fail. Its managers did.

In 2005, Greenberg stepped down after a 37-year run as AIG's CEO.

We'll be following his testimony closely.