The former CEO of American International Group Maurice Greenberg, is suing the U.S. government for $25 billion to cover the drop of HIS A.I.G. stock during the bailout of A.I.G. that cost taxpayers $85 Billion.
Greenberg says U.S. owes him $25B for AIG rescue
Some people just don't know when to shut up.
Greenberg asserts that the government took valuable property from him when, in return for providing tens of billions of dollars in aid, it took ownership of 80 percent of AIG. The lawsuit (which should have come with its own laugh track) claims the Feds violated the Fifth Amendment, which says private property can't be taken for "public use, without just compensation."
Now those of you still suffering from Traumatic Financial Shock Disorder may not remember exactly why the citizens of the United States came to own the company Greenberg founded. To recap: AIG had issued billions of dollars in insurance on bonds made out of subprime mortgages.
Now to be fair to Greenberg, I should note that by 2007 he was no longer employed by AIG as chairman. He was then just a major shareholder. He had "resigned" in 2005 when, as Bethany McClean and Joe Nocera recount in their great book All The Devils Are Here, "accountants from PWC told the [AIG] board that it would no longer vouch for the firm's books if Greenberg stayed on as CEO."
That's how bad Greenberg's slipshod management made things back in 2005. The mess Greenberg left behind contributed to the collapse of A.I.G. in 2008.
The only reason the stock has any value today is because of what the government did. This is a fact.
Now Greenberg wants U.S. taxpayers to pony up $ 25 BILLION to feather his nest. After his reckless greed helped to wreck the American economy and cost millions of us "little people" ten of Trillions of dollars in savings and home values, and threw millions more out or work and out of their homes that they could no longer afford without jobs.
Fact Sheet: Loss of values in political parties, media, and the money markets
Americans lost $5 trillion from their pensions and savings during this economic crisis, plus $13 trillion in home values. He added that workers aged 55-60—people who have diligently saved for 20 to 30 years—lost 25 percent of their 401Ks.
The arrogance and sense of entitlement of one percenters like Maurice Greenberg is absolutely breathtaking. Greenberg would be spending the rest of his life in prison if the U.S. didn't have a two tiered system of justice. A legal system Greenburg is now taking advantage of to inflict further injury on 307 million americans, many of who have already suffered greatly form Greenberg's unbridled greed.