AIG: Thanks for the bailout and have a lawsuit?

AIG made a thank you ad (above) after they paid back the $182 billion bailout. Now, the may launch a lawsuit?

Fresh from paying back a $182 billion bailout, the American International Group has been running a nationwide advertising campaign with the tagline “Thank you America.”
Behind the scenes, the restored insurance company is weighing whether to tell the government agencies that rescued it during the financial crisis: thanks, but you cheated our shareholders.

The board of A.I.G. will meet on Wednesday to consider joining a $25 billion shareholder lawsuit against the government, court records show. The lawsuit does not argue that government help was not needed. It contends that the onerous nature of the rescue — the taking of what became a 92 percent stake in the company, the deal’s high interest rates and the funneling of billions to the insurer’s Wall Street clients — deprived shareholders of tens of billions of dollars and violated the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the taking of private property for “public use, without just compensation.”

AIG offices need armed guards

AIG employees are receiving death threats and are afraid for their lives. Armed guards are being posted at their offices. The public outrage over the $1 billion in bonuses for AIG employees continues to grow. Over $400 million is planned for financial services employees and another $600 million for people throughout its global insurance units. Seventy three employees will receive over $1 million each. One lucky employee will receive $6 million. These bonuses come after the taxpayers footed a bailout for AIG worth over $170 billion. Now that the news media have picked up on this story, Congress is outraged. This outrage comes after they approved the bonuses in an earlier bailout. A million dollars should pay for a lot of fear tolerance.

AIG Offices patrolled by Armed Guards

A tidal wave of public outrage over bonus payments swamped American International Group yesterday. Hired guards stood watch outside the suburban Connecticut offices of AIG Financial Products, the division whose exotic derivatives brought the insurance giant to the brink of collapse last year. Inside, death threats and angry letters flooded e-mail inboxes. Irate callers lit up the phone lines. Senior managers submitted their resignations. Some employees didn't show up at all.

"It's a mob effect," one senior executive said. "It's putting people's lives in danger."

Politicians and the public spent yesterday demanding that AIG rescind payouts that they said rewarded recklessness and greed at a company being bailed out with $170 billion in taxpayer funds. But company officials contend that the uproar is scaring away the very employees who understand AIG Financial Products' complex trades and who are trying to dismantle the division before it further endangers the world's economy.(excerpt) read more at macedoniaonline.eu