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Politics: Hank Greenberg Should Be Shot into Space For Suing the Government over the AIG Bailout
Politics: Hank Greenberg Should Be Shot into Space For Suing the Government over the AIG Bailout
By
January 9, 2013

A lot of people are wondering what to think about the news that the board of AIG is considering joining the lawsuit filed by former AIG head Maurice "Hank" Greenberg against the Fed and the U.S. government – a suit that one news outlet describes as charging the state with handing out an "insufficiently generous bailout."

The editorial in today's Daily News captures the public feeling over this confusing news story quite well, I think:

If chutzpah were a crime, Hank Greenberg, American International Group's former chief, would be going away for a long, long time.

Long since driven out of AIG, Greenberg is waging a lawsuit claiming the U.S. hurt the firm's shareholders — including him — when the government rescued the insurance giant with the most humongous bailout of all time.

If you just read the headlines, the story that AIG is considering suing the government for bailing it out makes no sense at all. What could even be the basis for such a suit? One reader asked the question this way: "If a cop bursts into a motel room and stops you just as you're about to blow your head off with a shotgun, can you sue him? If the answer is yes, should I try it?"

Former bailout inspector Neil Barofsky put it this way, in an interview with Bloomberg: "The idea that AIG would have been better off by going bankrupt, for the shareholders is a very, very hard thing to sell, I think."

But here's the funny thing about the lawsuit filed against the government: It isn't all wrong. In fact, parts of it are quite on the mark.

The only problem is, the suit is being filed by maybe the biggest douchebag of all time, Hank Greenberg (and his company, Starr International), a man who has not only been proven to be corrupt and a fraud, but who perhaps more than anyone else was responsible for the galactic balance-sheet goat-fuck that caused AIG's implosion in the first place.

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You're a fuking moron!!! I thought research was the cardinal canon of journalism? Oh, wait, you write for RS. Greenberg wasn't at the helm of AIG when they took on the credit default swaps. If he had been, it never would have happened. In '07 when the firm had $80b worth of that garbage, Hank had already been two years removed as CEO by the OUTSIDE board and the underage ***** fornicator DB Elliot Spitzer. The charges Spitzer pontificated through the MEDIA, not in COURT, were groundless fabrications. Saber rattling with the intent to intimidate. After all that BS Hank was never charged with a crime in COURT bc one had not been committed. Total poppycock!. Hank is suing because the gov't assistance AIG received was vastly different and draconian when compared to other financial institutions who got bailed out. Only AIG received the funds under high interest pay back and the gov't took ownership of only AIG. Why did AIG receive such a vastly different structure? This thrashed the stock value and as Hank is AIG primary shareholder affecting his net-worth. This is the basis of the lawsuit. Hank was not on the Board and was not in a position to contest these terms when they were offered. Had he been, he clearly would not have accepted. The firm floundered while Hank was outsted, not under his watch. Under Hanks 40 years as CEO he grew AIG into an American icon, the WORLDS 18 largest publicly traded company to the likes we'll likely never see again. It's a travesty what happened to AIG. It's a fuking shame. Hank did not commit a crime. He was outsted by an over zealous DA with aspiration of governor and an opportunistic board on a power grab. The troubles that sank AIG would NEVER have happened under Greenbergs watch. Do your research, ****
Posted by Capable March 21, 2013, 1:02 am
My dog is smarter than this moron
Posted by Chris111 January 9, 2013, 5:32 pm