Spitzer hits AIG with civil complaint

[Roland99]

Civil action filed against insurer and ex-CEO Greenberg on accounting errors; auditors asleep?
http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/26/news/fortune500/aig_pwc/index.htm?cnn=yes

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer office filed a civil complaint Thursday against American International Group, a spokesman at Spitzer's office said Thursday.

The complaint comes just days ahead of the company's long-awaited annual financial report, which is due to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday.

In other AIG news, accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP may have missed warning signs of problems at AIG from the insurer's own audit committee, according to a report in the Washington Post Thursday.

The Post said that the AIG audit committee made filings in 2001 and 2002 in which it warned that the committee's oversight did "not provide an independent basis to determine that management has maintained appropriate accounting and financial reporting principles."

DAMN! I wish he was on the Plame case!

Can we at least get him in a LONG meeting with Conyers?!

[Nite Owl]

1. He doesn't have the Plame case

but he is examining what happened on 9-11. He took the case last year and it has been very quiet. Eliot Spitzer will be the next governor of the great state of New York.

[hang a left]

5. I hope your right, but I heard otherwise.

Submitted to:

Office of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer

120 Broadway
New York City, NY 10271
[phone]

Thursday, the 28th of October, 2004


On behalf of the complainant signatories below, the millions of New Yorkers who also call for a fearless independent inquiry, residents of and workers in New York, most particularly in and near "Ground Zero," and other Americans who have lost employees, friends and family members as well as health, business and personal assets and civil, privacy and other rights in the 9/11 aftermath, we approach your office as the representative of the people for achieving truth and justice with respect to the treacherous events of September 11, 2001 and, where fault and liability is found, recovery of the billions of dollars of resulting damages that have been sustained and continue to accrue.

As reported to your office, a representative poll published by Zogby International on August 30 of this year found that 49% of New York City residents and 41% of New Yorkers overall believe there was official foreknowledge and conscious acceptance of the 9/11 attacks, and that 66% of city residents and 56% overall want a new investigation. These findings are stunning and provide conclusive evidence that the People of New York are not satisfied that official investigations and news media have adequately addressed the truth of the events of that fateful day. Nearly half of New Yorkers believe that serving US leaders deliberately permitted the killing of thousands of Americans by foreign enemies. If that is the case, the responsible officials would be guilty of both mass murder and treason, as well as conspiring to inflict untold suffering upon the people of New York and violating a host of New York State laws, in addition to federal terrorist, treason and other laws. However, no independent official investigation into these alarming, recurring and evidentially plausible allegations has ever been held or is now contemplated.

When citizens of New York widely suspect appalling criminal activity within our government and by bad actors doing business in the State of New York, activity that has caused us grievous harm, we believe we are well within our rights as sovereign citizens to demand the legal and investigative means to address these concerns. We were therefore deeply inspired to read the Attorney General's 2002 Law Day address on the critical importance of restoring public trust in our principal institutions. You focused then on financial markets, charities, and churches, but we believe your words aptly address the collapse of faith in government that the Zogby poll reveals today:

It is important that we understand that this crisis exists, that it has already damaged important institutions, and that we must take immediate action to restore the faith of a betrayed public… The process of restoring a shattered trust is a lengthy one. Unfortunately, we do not have time to wait… Too much will be lost during the time that this process naturally unfolds; the skepticism and distrust that exists will continue to exact a tremendous cost… Our system of law can provide - indeed, can itself be - the solution to the crisis created by the betrayal of their trust.

snip>>

read the rest

http://justicefor911.org/Original_Complaint_10-28-04NY.php

[AnneD]

2. I love this guy......

I know he wants to run for Gov of NY but he is SOOOOO good as the DA. We middle class investors really need him cleaning up Wall Street-----the US gov is dragging their heels. He is David to the Wall Street Goliath. Did I say how much I love this guy :lovey:

[HockeyMom]

3. Can't wait to get rid of Pataki

Spitzer's got my vote.

[AnneD]

12. I know you do need a new gov...

but the country needs someone watching the foxs on Wall St. That affects ALL of us across the country. I wouldn't be suprised if the corps are a heavy contributer to his campaign just to get him off their backs.

[Robbien]

4. AIG just admitted to fraud in Australia

They admitted to overstating bottom line by $61 million.

They were not fined, just told they have to obey the rules from now on and have to report regularly.

:wtf:

[Roland99]

6. "Stop that! Stop that! Stop stealing money, mmkay?"

[gizmo1979]

7. SPITZER for president in 08!

[Octafish]

8. Greenberg Manipulated AIG Stock, Profit, Spitzer Says

If Bloomberg prints it, it must be true.

BTW: Gee. Isn't Maurice a GOOD, good, bad friend of Poppy Bush?

Greenberg Manipulated AIG Stock, Profit, Spitzer Says

May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Four days after announcing a subpoena from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Maurice ``Hank'' Greenberg, then chief executive of American International Group Inc., made a call from his private jet. He ordered a trader at his company to buy shares to stop a slump in AIG's stock.

Greenberg's instruction on Feb. 18 was to buy as many as 250,000 AIG shares with company funds, according to a lawsuit filed by Spitzer yesterday. Greenberg called back twice, first to double the order and then to tell the trader to buy after a 3:50 p.m. cut-off designed to prevent companies from manipulating the closing price of their shares.

``(Y)ou can keep buying a little more stock, it's alright,'' Greenberg told the unidentified trader, according to Spitzer's complaint. ``Push it up a little bit if we can.'' The shares closed at $68.93 that day after dropping as low as $68.50.

Spitzer's suit, which accused New York-based AIG, Greenberg and former Chief Financial Officer Howard Smith of civil fraud, described the chief executive as fixated on the share price of the world's largest insurer. Greenberg, ousted in March after a 38-year reign, directed or had knowledge of at least seven types of deceptive accounting designed to improve AIG's financial results or stock, Spitzer said.

CONTINUED...

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=aBIqrhRg7YQk&refer=home

[Frederik]

13. Don't know about Poppy

but he's buddy-buddy with Henry Kissinger. He's been a loyal client of Kissinger & Associates since Henry started his door-opening business.

Hank was a candidate for CIA director in 1995, but John Deutsch was chosen instead.

He's allegedly got ties to the Russian mafia and the ruling elites in Russia and China. AIG was the first foreign company that was licensed to sell insurance in China since it became Communist (in 1995 I believe).

[Octafish]

14. If AIG's in China, a Bush can't be far behind.

Poppy was the head of the US delegation -- not ambassador, as reported below -- after Nixon decided to open the joint for business. Poppy's brother, Prescott Jr., headed the US-China Chamber of Commerce. It's "good" to be connected in every way.

President's uncle shares Bush family ties to China

By Debbie Howlett, USA TODAY

EXCERPT...

The president's uncle concedes that he sometimes relied on his name to open doors, but he says any deals he made were the result of his own hard work.

"You can get a meeting because of it, you can meet a lot of people because of it," he said in a recent interview in Chicago, where the U.S.-China Chamber of Commerce has its headquarters. "But I don't get a lot of business because my nephew is president or my brother was president."

Some experts argue otherwise. A name is not just helpful, it's essential, says Nick Larty, a professor of international relations at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.: "Who you get access to in China is pretty much a function of how important you are."

Along with access, the family name has also brought scrutiny to Prescott Bush's deals:
* He was criticized in 1989 for visiting China to meet with business and government leaders just three months after the Tiananmen Square massacre, in which army troops fired at pro-democracy demonstrators.
* His Shanghai partnership with the Japanese firm Aoki in 1988 proved embarrassing when revelations surfaced that Aoki at the same time was allegedly trying to get business contracts by bribing Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, whom the first President Bush later ousted from power.
* His connections to an American firm, Asset Management, came into question in 1989, when the company was the only U.S. firm able to skirt U.S. sanctions and import communications satellites into China.
* When Asset Management went bankrupt later that year, Bush's deal to arrange a buyout through West Tsusho, a Japanese investment firm, raised eyebrows. Newspapers reported that Japanese police were investigating West Tsusho's alleged ties to organized crime.

Bush declines to discuss those controversies. "That's old news. It's in the past," he says.

CONTINUED...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2002/02/19/usat-prescott-bush.htm

Of COURSE it is. Way in the past.

[Al-CIAda]

9. Hey Spitzer, what about the US gov't. 9/11 complicity? n/t

[Frederik]

10. Auditors "asleep"

:boring:

[thebigidea]

11. Can I just say that "PricewaterhouseCoopers" is a stupid sounding name?

IHateWhenTheyCompressWordsButStillCapitalizeThem.