[Infowarrior] - More AIG hypocracy

[Richard Forno]

....weren't these the same "best and brightest talent" that got the  
firm into this mess to begin wtih?  WTF are we giving them bonuses  
with taxpayer money?   If the USG doesn't force AIG to renegotiate  
these things downward, it really will show how impotent it has become  
in inflicting penalties (of a sort) on these guys.     -rf


AIG Paying Millions in Bonuses Despite Receiving Federal Bailout
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/14/AR2009031401394_pf.html

By David Cho
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 14, 2009; 5:25 PM

Despite receiving $170 billion in federal aid and recording a  
staggering loss for the last quarter, insurance giant American  
International Group is doling out tens of million of dollars in  
bonuses this week to senior employees.

While AIG agreed to pay the bonuses months before the government's  
rescue of the company began, the matter still is a source of anger for  
government officials. In a phone call on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary  
Timothy F. Geithner told AIG Chairman and chief executive Edward M.  
Liddy that the payments were unacceptable and needed to be  
renegotiated, according to an administration source.

The company has since agreed to change the terms of some of these  
payments. But in a letter to Geithner, Liddy wrote that the bonuses  
could not be cancelled altogether because the firm would risk a  
lawsuit for breaching employment contracts. Liddy also expressed  
concerns about whether changing the bonuses would lead to an exodus of  
talented employees who are needed to turn the company around.

"We cannot attract and retain the best and brightest talent to lead  
and staff the AIG businesses -- which are now being operated  
principally on behalf of the American taxpayers -- if employees  
believe that their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary  
adjustment by the U.S. treasury," Liddy wrote.

AIG has agreed to restructure the $9.6 million in bonuses it would  
have paid to the firm's top 50 officers. AIG's top seven executives,  
including Liddy, have already agreed to forgo this payment altogether.  
The next 43 highest ranking officers would still receive half of their  
bonuses now. A quarter would be dispersed on July 15 and the rest on  
Sept. 15, but these last two payments would be contingent on whether  
the company makes progress on its restructuring plan.

Other bonus payments to thousands of employees, which total in the  
hundreds of millions of dollars, are still on track to be paid out.