| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The investigation of American International Group Inc.'s (NYSE:AIG) uses for government bailout money has taken an odd turn. Now the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y. wants to probe the insurer about interactions with P.R. contacts to find out if AIG used part of the government's $182.5 billion bailout for discrediting the insurer's former CEO and shareholder Hank Greenberg. As The Times points out, AIG is spending, "tens of thousands of dollars every month" on four big PR firms:
Apparently, one of these firms created "The Greenberg Legacy," a report distributed anonymously to the news media the evening prior to Greenberg's April 2 committee testimony. The Greenberg Legacy is a four-page dossier that declares war on the former CEO, according to an April 1, 2009 article by Pro Publica: "The first section includes 11 bullet points that recap history of the Financial Products division and Greenberg's role in originating it. Greenberg has tried to distance himself from the unit, which lost billions selling a form of insurance on toxic mortgage securities. The next section deals with "Mr. Greenberg's Ouster." It recounts Greenberg's decision to "take the Fifth" when confronted by questions from investigators examining securities fraud by the company." According to Reuters, AIG spokesman Mark Herr said the report was necessary to correct supposedly misleading statements by the former CEO. "This issue is not about AIG's corporate public relations expenditures, which are down sharply since last year. It is about correcting Mr. Greenberg's false and damaging statements." What damaging statements were those? His testimony was mostly his opinion and the denial that the failure of AIG was his fault. Everybody is entitled to their opinion, including Greenberg. Sure, AIG spends money on PR. They have to. They need it after the
bailout, being blasted for doling out those bonuses and the fire sales
of assets. But to spend taxpayer money on "correcting" public comments by the former boss seems extreme. AIG has until April 28 to comply with the requests for PR flack interaction.
- Maria Woehr Here's Greenberg's testimony courtesy of The Wall Street Journal and Fox News:
 Deal Video
    Community
 Elsewhere on The Deal.comDealwatchThe Deal MagazineCorporate Dealmaker
The Deal VideoCategories
Blog roll
Archives
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
