Reply #12: AIG Says Unit Faces U.S. Criminal Probe

[Snazzy]

AIG Says Unit Faces U.S. Criminal Probe
Wed Sep 29, 2004 05:37 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal probe into whether American International Group Inc. (AIG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , the world's largest insurer by market value, helped a major banking client move bad loans off its books, AIG said on Wednesday.

AIG said in a regulatory filing it believes the Justice Department investigation relates to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission probe into whether an AIG unit helped PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (PNC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) cloak $762 million of bad loans, inflating the bank's profit by $155 million.

...

PNC last year paid $115 million to settle criminal charges by the Justice Department that it fraudulently moved the loans off its books.

AIG announced the probe after U.S. markets closed. Its shares rose 14 cents to $68.50 in Wednesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange, but fell to $66.99 in after-hours trading on INET.

http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=6370099

------------
Excerpts from:

http://www.whitehouseforsale.org/ContributorsAndPaybacks/pioneer_profile.cfm?pioneer_ID=79


Name Maurice 'Hank' R. Greenberg
Industry Insurance
Employer American International Group
Occupation Chair & CEO
Address New York, NY
Status for 2000 Raised at least $100,000
Status for 2004 Ranger

Greenberg led a lobbying blitz to get taxpayers to bail out terrorism-related insurance losses. At Greenberg’s request, a handwritten amendment was added to a 2001 bill granting war-risk insurance to airlines. The addendum extends the coverage to insurers that lease planes to airlines, namely AIG.

Clamoring for limits on class-action lawsuits in a 2004 speech, Greenberg denounced plaintiff lawyers as “terrorists.”

Clamoring for limits on class-action lawsuits in a 2004 speech, Greenberg denounced plaintiff lawyers as “terrorists.” AIG helped Enron cook its books by investing in its notorious LJM2 partnership along with Merrill Lynch (see Stanley O’Neal) and J.P. Morgan (see Alan Buckwalter).

AIG paid $10 million in 2003 to settle Securities and Exchange Commission fraud charges that it helped a struggling mobile phone company pad its earnings by selling it a phony, back-dated, insurance policy.

and so on.