Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk

peaceandlove · 03-15-2009, 05:20 AM

Battle Over Bonuses: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk

Bank Wants Bonus Figures Kept Confidential, NY Attorney General Fights for Public Disclosure

By Richard Esposito
March 6, 2009

The battle for bonus figures in the New York State investigation into the merger of Merrill Lynch and Bank of America got even uglier today, with the bank "threatening to sue" a former employee who was willing to unconditionally tell the state's attorney general which Merrill high-fliers received the thickest slices of a $3.6 billion bonus pie that was dished out on the eve of the January merger, state officials said Friday.

This latest public chapter came as New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office replied to court documents filed Thursday by Bank of America that urged that the information remain confidential and that the confidentiality extend beyond former Merrill CEO John Thain's testimony to include statements from other executives, at least four of whom have already testified.

Fresh testimony given Thursday by former Merrill executive, Gregory Fleming, prompted the alleged threat to sue Cuomo's office said.

Bank of America would not comment on specifics but said in a statement, "Bank of America has continually offered to provide the information the attorney general is seeking if he would agree to an appropriate confidentiality agreement. He has continually declined."

Article continues: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7026436&page=1

Dantheman62 · 03-15-2009, 06:14 AM

This bogus bonus bull is going to catch up with all of them sooner or later! People aren't going to put up with this! Here's another one!.......

Insurance giant AIG to pay $165 million in bonuses
Sunday March 15, 12:58 am ET
By Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer
Insurance giant paying out millions in bonuses; company agrees to restrain payments in future

WASHINGTON (AP) -- American International Group is giving its executives tens of millions of dollars in new bonuses even though it received a taxpayer bailout of more than $170 billion dollars.
AIG is paying out the executive bonuses to meet a Sunday deadline, but the troubled insurance giant has agreed to administration requests to restrain future payments.

The Treasury Department determined that the government did not have the legal authority to block the current payments by the company. AIG declared earlier this month that it had suffered a loss of $61.7 billion for the fourth quarter of last year, the largest corporate loss in history.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has asked that the company scale back future bonus payments where legally possible, an administration official said Saturday.

This official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said that Geithner had called AIG Chairman Edward Liddy on Wednesday to demand that Liddy renegotiate AIG's current bonus structure.

Geithner termed the current bonus structure unacceptable in view of the billions of dollars of taxpayer support the company is receiving, this official said.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090315/aig_bonuses.html

oldpaganfreak · 03-15-2009, 06:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dantheman62

-- American International Group is giving its executives tens of millions of dollars in new bonuses even though it received a taxpayer bailout of more than $170 billion dollars.

huh?? i always thought that companies gave bonus for outstanding performance. a company showing billions in losses, is not performing well.
why the f*ck are they paying bonuses at all??

Dantheman62 · 03-15-2009, 06:50 AM

Exactly!, like I said this bogus bonus bull is gonna have to stop somewhere, sometime!

avyaktam · 03-15-2009, 07:16 AM

Legal contract issues, I guess.
A scam all the same. The law is interpreted for different people in different ways.

777 The Great Work · 03-15-2009, 07:24 AM

Dantheman62 · 03-15-2009, 11:21 PM

Chorus of outrage over millions in AIG bonuses....HaHa.....

WASHINGTON – Leaders of the White House economic team and the Senate's top Republican bellowed about bonuses at a bailed-out insurance giant and pledged to prevent such payments in the future.

From one Sunday talk show to the next, they tore into the contracts that American International Group asserted had to be honored, to the tune of about $165 million and payable to executives by Sunday — part of a larger total payout reportedly valued at $450 million. The company has benefited from more than $170 billion in a federal rescue.

AIG has agreed to Obama administration requests to restrain future payments. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pressed the president's case with AIG's chairman, Edward Liddy, last week.

"He stepped in and berated them, got them to reduce the bonuses following every legal means he has to do this," said Austan Goolsbee, staff director of President Barack Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

"I don't know why they would follow a policy that's really not sensible, is obviously going to ignite the ire of millions of people, and we've done exactly what we can do to prevent this kind of thing from happening again," Goolsbee said.

Added Lawrence Summers, Obama's top economic adviser: "The easy thing would be to just say ... off with their heads, violate the contracts. But you have to think about the consequences of breaking contracts for the overall system of law, for the overall financial system."

Summers said Geithner used all his power, "both legal and moral, to reduce the level of these bonus payments."

The Democratic administration's argument about the sanctity of contracts was more than Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky could bear.

"For them to simply sit there and blame it on the previous administration or claim contract — we all know that contracts are valid in this country, but they need to be looked at," McConnell said. "Did they enter into these contracts knowing full well that, as a practical matter, the taxpayers of the United States were going to be reimbursing their employees? Particularly employees who got them into this mess in the first place? I think it's an outrage."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090315/...wh/aig_outrage

Dantheman62 · 03-15-2009, 11:49 PM

See, people are watching closely now! and not standing by doing nothing at all, it's a good thing!

alyscat · 03-16-2009, 01:12 AM

ya'rite. Pledged to prevent such payouts in the future. And we'll have the same "it's contracts" kind of excuse. I give the administration until summer to get their act together, or they're going to find that suddenly, next election, we're going to find that 3rd party candidates may actually make it in our political system.

Do you believe that Geithner REALLY stepped in and berated them? This man is from that arena. I don't believe it. I can see a "hey, guys, this is going to cause a big x8%$# storm, give me a break, let's see if we can maybe take 10% off and sell that" kind of response.

alys

Dantheman62 · 03-16-2009, 01:41 AM

No I think Geithner was pushed to step in but my point was that it's out in the open now and people are watching! Like Mitch McConnell, senate republican leader, he's pi..sed off and I'm sure others are too, just like us, so it's a start!
Using the contract excuse isn't really an excuse at all, it's a valid point! If you start rearranging and making contracts null and void then what good is a contract? They have their purpose and need to be upheld as much as possible.

Christo888 · 03-16-2009, 06:09 AM

Well, 'Dan the Man' you have pulled on some strings about AIG that is for sure.

You see Several years ago AIG was my insurance carrier and one day there was a mix up in the billing, go figure.

Anyway, I stopped in to see my agent to ask if my payment was past due they looked up my account and said all was fine... (well I was sure that I was a day or two late and though there is a 30 day grace period I was hoping to not have to pay the late fee if I could help it).
So I walked out of their office a little puzzled as to why I would be current. Of course two days later I get a VM from my agent telling me there was a mix-up in the billing data and I was late and to come back in and make a payment.

Luckily I had asked for a copy of the record the first time I was there. When I went back in to make a payment they told me there were several people in their computer system with the same name and they have to go by middle names in order to keep the billing data straight. As they chuckled about how often they get confused with many accounts with the same name I noticed that they went to a different desk to look up my account. They also happened to mention that the other person by the same name had just been in there office paying a bill and that is why they were confused about my account being paid.

I have been down the road of so many household name companys commiting billing fraud it is certainly beyond the comprehension of most Americans to grasp how often they are being ripped off.

The bottom line is I turned in the insurance agent to the state insurance board to investigate the billing 'error' and where it went from there I do not know. But AIG does and the paperwork I have specifically shows one persons account but with two policys and only one being paid for.

So AIG is double billing insurance policys yet they would only receive payment on one of them which leaves the other policy as past due or defaulted, but perhaps they even paid out two commissions on the two different policy's yet receive payment on just the one account.

So was there ever a loss when the other person never existed except as just a duplicate billing with a few minor changes in order to be in the billing data as two seperate accounts. Seems like huge losses could be reported nationwide using this similar scheme yet no real loss ever occurred except in the computer billing data.

I wonder how many false insurance policy's are actually in their billing system that would generate a report of past due or defaulted payments????

And 'Ernst and Young' is probably their accountants as they seem to be the clearinghouse for most of the household name company's that have questionable monthly billing database accounting issues.

Of course they want to pay out millions in bonus's for a job well done to their employees, who else is going to work hard at maintaining the customer databases so accurately for P&L qtrl's and tax liability (buydowns) projections. Maybe the same employees who are to receive the bonuses are the very ones who have lots to say about their billing system! I wonder if there is a tie-in to UBS as well.

The value of a company can only be measured by the data contained within a bunch of numbers that someone allows in the accounting system... perhaps you may want to purchase stock in that!!!

TruthWillSetUFree · 03-16-2009, 11:50 AM

I'm confused.

Why are they getting these big bonuses when the dollar is slated to collapse?

Are they buying people off with their Monopoly money knowing the %*^&* will hit the fan anyway?

Dantheman62 · 03-16-2009, 06:11 PM

The saga continues!............

AP
NY atty gen to probe AIG bonuses for fraud
Monday March 16, 1:32 pm ET
NY attorney general to investigate whether AIG bonus payments constituted fraud

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- New York state's attorney general is demanding that American International Group have details on his desk this afternoon about who is getting its multimillion-dollar bonuses.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says his office will investigate whether recipients of the payments were involved in the insurance giant's decline and whether the payments are fraudulent under state law.

President Barack Obama declared Monday that he plans to stop AIG from paying the executive bonuses.

Cuomo said he would issue subpoenas at 4 p.m. Monday if he didn't get the names of employees scheduled for bonuses plus information about their work and contracts.

Cuomo said he's been investigating AIG compensation arrangements since last fall.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090316/aig_cuomo.html

Dantheman62 · 03-16-2009, 06:17 PM

Can I get a round of applause!!!!!!!.........maybe? LOL!

Dantheman62 · 03-16-2009, 07:28 PM

ok there's still more!..........

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama declared Monday that insurance giant American International Group is in financial straits because of "recklessness and greed" and said he intends to stop it from paying out millions in executive bonuses.

"It's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay," Obama said at the outset of an appearance to announce help for small businesses hurt by the deep recession.

"How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat," the president said.

Obama spoke out in the wake of reports that surfaced over the weekend saying that financially strapped American International Group Inc. was paying substantial bonuses to executives.

Noting that AIG has "received substantial sums" of federal aid from the federal government, Obama said he has asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner "to use that leverage and pursue every legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole."

"This isn't just a matter of dollars and cents," he added. "It's about our fundamental values."

The $165 million was payable to executives by Sunday and was part of a larger total payout reportedly valued at $450 million. The company has benefited from more than $170 billion in a federal rescue.

AIG reported this month that it had lost $61.7 billion for the fourth quarter of last year, the largest corporate loss in history. The bulk of the payments at issue cover AIG Financial Products, the unit of the company that sold credit default swaps, the risky contracts that caused massive losses for the insurer.

Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, earlier Monday charged that the move to pay bonuses amounted to "rewarding incompetence."

"We ought to explore everything that we can through the government to make sure that this money is not wasted," said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. "These people brought this on themselves. Now you're rewarding failure. A lot of these people should be fired, not awarded bonuses. This is horrible. It's outrageous."

Frank said he was disgusted, asserting that "these bonuses are going to people who screwed this thing up enormously."

"Maybe it's time to fire some people," he said. "We can't keep them from getting bonuses but we can keep them from having their jobs. ... In high school, they wouldn't have gotten retention (bonuses), they would have gotten detention."

AIG has agreed to Obama administration requests to restrain future payments. Geithner had pressed the president's case with AIG's chairman, Edward Liddy, last week.

"He stepped in and berated them, got them to reduce the bonuses following every legal means he has to do this," said Austan Goolsbee, staff director of President Barack Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090316/...wh/aig_outrage

Dantheman62 · 03-16-2009, 07:41 PM

ok how about a little hand clap now!

Karen · 03-16-2009, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dantheman62

ok how about a little hand clap now!

YEAH! Dan the Man! Thank you for your diligence. Nice to find all this with just one click of the mouse.

I try not to watch too much TV - do it mostly now because my mom likes the company ...
Anyway Bernake (sp?) was on 60 Minutes last night mentioning AIG bonuses, plus singing a sweet rosy song about the need for the Federal Reserve. While I was resisting the urge to barf on this poison spin she was lapping it up it hook, line, and sinker.

At her age of 77, I think it best not to rock her boat too much. If I get the chance though, just for my own edification, I'll be scouting the web for intelligent rebuttals to Bernake's sweet pablum.

Thanks Dan for all you do!
Karen

Dantheman62 · 03-17-2009, 04:55 AM

ALBANY, N.Y. – New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Monday he has issued subpoenas for the names of American International Group employees given millions of dollars in bonuses despite their possible roles in the insurance giant's near-collapse.

Cuomo made good on a threat he made Monday in a letter to AIG's government-appointed chief executive, Edward Liddy, in which he said he would issue administrative subpoenas after 4 p.m. if he didn't get the employees' names, information about their work at AIG's Financial Products subsidiary and the contracts the company said required paying the bonuses. The Financial Products unit sold credit default swaps, the risky contracts that caused massive losses for the insurer.

"Four o'clock has come and gone. We haven't got the information. We'll be issuing subpoenas immediately," Cuomo told reporters in a conference call after the deadline.

In addition to a list of people set to receive bonuses, Cuomo demanded details about who developed the bonus plans.

"Covering up the details of these payments breeds further cynicism and distrust in our already shaken financial system," Cuomo wrote in the letter to Liddy.

The $165 million was payable to executives by Sunday and was part of a larger total payout reportedly valued at $450 million.

Cuomo said his office stopped AIG from spending $600 million from another bonus pool last fall. He declined Monday to say whether his office will be examining any other bonus and retention money paid by the company.

AIG Financial Products "essentially bankrupted the company. Now they want to give these people bonuses for performance and retention," Cuomo said. "That's adding insult to injury."

Cuomo said the information should be disclosed to taxpayers bailing out the company and would help him determine whether the bonuses are illegal.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/aig_cuomo

Dantheman62 · 03-17-2009, 05:27 AM

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. government will modify a planned $30 billion capital injection for American International Group Inc to try to recoup hundreds of millions of dollars in controversial bonuses, a Treasury official said on Monday.

The U.S. government's actions came after President Barack Obama expressed "outrage" on Monday over the bonuses to AIG employees, and ordered officials to take all legal measures to block them.

The Treasury Department plans to attach new provisions to the terms of its latest AIG rescue package, announced on March 2, to force repayment of the bonuses, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Obama said in remarks at the White House he was "choked up with anger" over the executive payments, which is a hot button issue in the deepening recession.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090317/ts_nm/us_aig

peaceandlove · 03-17-2009, 06:09 PM

Dan, here is a new one for you.

Cuomo: 73 AIG Employees Received Bonuses of $1 Million or More

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says 73 employees at American International Group received bonuses of $1 million or more, with one receiving more than $6 million.

Cuomo is launching an investigation into the bailed-out company following revelations that it distributed $165 million in executive bonuses. Cuomo reported his latest findings in a letter Tuesday to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House financial services committee.

"Already my office has determined that some of these bonuses were staggering in size," Cuomo wrote.

Lawmakers have expressed outrage at the bonuses and pledged to retrieve most of the money. In a breakdown of the figures, Cuomo reported that the top recipient at AIG got more than $6.4 million and the top seven received more than $4 million each.

"These payments were all made to individuals in the subsidiary whose performance led to crushing losses and the near failure of AIG. Thus, last week, AIG made more than 73 millionaires in the unit which lost so much money that it brought the firm to its knees, forcing a taxpayer bailout," Cuomo wrote. "Something is deeply wrong with this outcome."

Cuomo wrote that his office has also obtained the contracts for these employees and found they "shockingly" contain a provision requiring most 2008 bonuses to be 100 percent of their 2007 payments.

Though AIG argues that it was contractually obligated to pay out the bonuses, Cuomo cast doubt on that assertion. He said that since certain employees agreed to salaries of $1 for 2009 in exchange for their bonuses, "It appears that AIG had far more leverage than they now claim."

Plus he wrote that if the federal government had not stepped in with more than $170 billion in bailout money, "the firm likely would have gone bankrupt, and surely no payments would have been made out of the plan."

Cuomo wrote that he will ensure AIG complies with subpoenas he issued for the names of those who received bonuses.

Source:
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/wire.php?view=3437

peaceandlove · 03-18-2009, 10:45 AM

AIG Employee: "I have a horrible, horrible, horrible feeling that this is going to end badly."

Posted by Bess Levin, Mar 17, 2009, 11:59am

Source: http://dealbreaker.com/2009/03/aig-e...a-horrible.php

So, according to reports, the events of the last several days have left AIG scared ****less. The fear emanating from the insurer, and specifically Team Financial Products, is two-fold. The first thing causing them to quake in their boots is you, the American taxpayer. You really get scary when it comes to your money.

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."

The second thing causing them to almost comically soil themselves, is the monster they've created with their own two hands which, shockingly, the company is yet to officially speak as candidly about as this guy:

"It's going to blow up," said a senior Financial Products manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the company. "I have a horrible, horrible, horrible feeling that this is going to end badly."

According to Reports article:

AIG Offices patrolled by Armed Guards

Excerpt:

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.

"It's going to blow up," said a senior Financial Products manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the company. "I have a horrible, horrible, horrible feeling that this is going to end badly."

Full Article (a lot of what's been said already in the posts above this one): http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/6016/52/

alyscat · 03-18-2009, 02:17 PM

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpu...adminis-1.html
So, the administration is saying they didn't know about the bonuses until just a short while ago? And we own over 79% of AIG? SOMEBODY needs to do some oversight.

http://www.buffalonews.com/180/story/611215.html
However, this might be why... Buffalo story on how members of congress have accepted campaign money, etc. from AIG and it's employees over time. - Gee, you think maybe that's why no one looked reallly hard at AIG?

burgundia · 03-18-2009, 04:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dantheman62

ok how about a little hand clap now!

clap, clap, clap, clap......
however it doesn't impact me directly....

Dantheman62 · 03-20-2009, 04:23 AM

AP
NY AG expects Merrill bonus names tonight
Thursday March 19, 8:09 pm ET
NY attorney general expects list of Merrill bonus recipients from Bank of America tonight

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York's attorney general expects to receive the names of Merrill Lynch employees who got millions in bonuses before Bank of America Corp. bought the brokerage.
Alex Detrick, spokesman for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, said Cuomo expected the names Thursday evening.

Cuomo is investigating whether Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America and Merrill failed to provide proper disclosures to shareholders about the bonuses, which came just as Bank of America requested more federal aid to help it absorb losses linked to the investment bank.

Bank of America spokesman Scott Silvestri also said he expects the details of the Merrill bonuses will be delivered to Cuomo's office Thursday night.

Earlier Thursday, Cuomo's office also received a list of American International Group Inc. employees who received a total of $165 million in retention bonuses.

peaceandlove · 03-21-2009, 12:55 AM

AIG Unit Sues Countrywide Over Loan Losses 03/20/2009

AIG, once the world's largest insurer, recently reported a 2008 fourth-quarter loss of $61.7 billion — the biggest quarterly loss in U.S. corporate history — linked to subprime loan defaults and continued market turmoil.

LOS ANGELES – A unit of embattled insurer American International Group Inc. filed suit against mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. in California federal court Thursday, alleging Countrywide misrepresented the health of loans that the company insured, resulting in massive losses.

QUOTING DANtheMAN62,

Quote:

HA, HA!

BUSY PASSING THE BUCK, I WONDER WHO WILL BE THE LOSER IN THIS MUSICAL CHAIRS GAME?

Article continues: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090320/...rywide_lawsuit

03-15-2009, 05:20 AM	#1
peaceandlove Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Turtle Island Posts: 2,776	Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk Battle Over Bonuses: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk Bank Wants Bonus Figures Kept Confidential, NY Attorney General Fights for Public Disclosure By Richard Esposito March 6, 2009 The battle for bonus figures in the New York State investigation into the merger of Merrill Lynch and Bank of America got even uglier today, with the bank "threatening to sue" a former employee who was willing to unconditionally tell the state's attorney general which Merrill high-fliers received the thickest slices of a $3.6 billion bonus pie that was dished out on the eve of the January merger, state officials said Friday. This latest public chapter came as New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office replied to court documents filed Thursday by Bank of America that urged that the information remain confidential and that the confidentiality extend beyond former Merrill CEO John Thain's testimony to include statements from other executives, at least four of whom have already testified. Fresh testimony given Thursday by former Merrill executive, Gregory Fleming, prompted the alleged threat to sue Cuomo's office said. Bank of America would not comment on specifics but said in a statement, "Bank of America has continually offered to provide the information the attorney general is seeking if he would agree to an appropriate confidentiality agreement. He has continually declined." Article continues: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7026436&page=1

03-15-2009, 06:14 AM	#2
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk This bogus bonus bull is going to catch up with all of them sooner or later! People aren't going to put up with this! Here's another one!....... Insurance giant AIG to pay $165 million in bonuses Sunday March 15, 12:58 am ET By Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer Insurance giant paying out millions in bonuses; company agrees to restrain payments in future WASHINGTON (AP) -- American International Group is giving its executives tens of millions of dollars in new bonuses even though it received a taxpayer bailout of more than $170 billion dollars. AIG is paying out the executive bonuses to meet a Sunday deadline, but the troubled insurance giant has agreed to administration requests to restrain future payments. The Treasury Department determined that the government did not have the legal authority to block the current payments by the company. AIG declared earlier this month that it had suffered a loss of $61.7 billion for the fourth quarter of last year, the largest corporate loss in history. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has asked that the company scale back future bonus payments where legally possible, an administration official said Saturday. This official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said that Geithner had called AIG Chairman Edward Liddy on Wednesday to demand that Liddy renegotiate AIG's current bonus structure. Geithner termed the current bonus structure unacceptable in view of the billions of dollars of taxpayer support the company is receiving, this official said. http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090315/aig_bonuses.html

03-15-2009, 06:50 AM	#4
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk Exactly!, like I said this bogus bonus bull is gonna have to stop somewhere, sometime!

03-15-2009, 07:16 AM	#5
avyaktam Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Auroville, India Posts: 268	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk Legal contract issues, I guess. A scam all the same. The law is interpreted for different people in different ways.

03-15-2009, 07:24 AM	#6
777 The Great Work Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: At the doors of perception Posts: 2,135	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk Last edited by 777 The Great Work; 03-15-2009 at 07:27 AM.

03-15-2009, 11:21 PM	#7
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk Chorus of outrage over millions in AIG bonuses....HaHa..... WASHINGTON – Leaders of the White House economic team and the Senate's top Republican bellowed about bonuses at a bailed-out insurance giant and pledged to prevent such payments in the future. From one Sunday talk show to the next, they tore into the contracts that American International Group asserted had to be honored, to the tune of about $165 million and payable to executives by Sunday — part of a larger total payout reportedly valued at $450 million. The company has benefited from more than $170 billion in a federal rescue. AIG has agreed to Obama administration requests to restrain future payments. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pressed the president's case with AIG's chairman, Edward Liddy, last week. "He stepped in and berated them, got them to reduce the bonuses following every legal means he has to do this," said Austan Goolsbee, staff director of President Barack Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. "I don't know why they would follow a policy that's really not sensible, is obviously going to ignite the ire of millions of people, and we've done exactly what we can do to prevent this kind of thing from happening again," Goolsbee said. Added Lawrence Summers, Obama's top economic adviser: "The easy thing would be to just say ... off with their heads, violate the contracts. But you have to think about the consequences of breaking contracts for the overall system of law, for the overall financial system." Summers said Geithner used all his power, "both legal and moral, to reduce the level of these bonus payments." The Democratic administration's argument about the sanctity of contracts was more than Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky could bear. "For them to simply sit there and blame it on the previous administration or claim contract — we all know that contracts are valid in this country, but they need to be looked at," McConnell said. "Did they enter into these contracts knowing full well that, as a practical matter, the taxpayers of the United States were going to be reimbursing their employees? Particularly employees who got them into this mess in the first place? I think it's an outrage." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090315/...wh/aig_outrage

03-15-2009, 11:49 PM	#8
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk See, people are watching closely now! and not standing by doing nothing at all, it's a good thing!

03-16-2009, 01:12 AM	#9
alyscat Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Washington state Posts: 743	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk ya'rite. Pledged to prevent such payouts in the future. And we'll have the same "it's contracts" kind of excuse. I give the administration until summer to get their act together, or they're going to find that suddenly, next election, we're going to find that 3rd party candidates may actually make it in our political system. Do you believe that Geithner REALLY stepped in and berated them? This man is from that arena. I don't believe it. I can see a "hey, guys, this is going to cause a big x8%$# storm, give me a break, let's see if we can maybe take 10% off and sell that" kind of response. alys

03-16-2009, 01:41 AM	#10
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk No I think Geithner was pushed to step in but my point was that it's out in the open now and people are watching! Like Mitch McConnell, senate republican leader, he's pi..sed off and I'm sure others are too, just like us, so it's a start! Using the contract excuse isn't really an excuse at all, it's a valid point! If you start rearranging and making contracts null and void then what good is a contract? They have their purpose and need to be upheld as much as possible.

03-16-2009, 06:09 AM	#11
Christo888 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: OC, CA and next... Posts: 1,289	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk Well, 'Dan the Man' you have pulled on some strings about AIG that is for sure. You see Several years ago AIG was my insurance carrier and one day there was a mix up in the billing, go figure. Anyway, I stopped in to see my agent to ask if my payment was past due they looked up my account and said all was fine... (well I was sure that I was a day or two late and though there is a 30 day grace period I was hoping to not have to pay the late fee if I could help it). So I walked out of their office a little puzzled as to why I would be current. Of course two days later I get a VM from my agent telling me there was a mix-up in the billing data and I was late and to come back in and make a payment. Luckily I had asked for a copy of the record the first time I was there. When I went back in to make a payment they told me there were several people in their computer system with the same name and they have to go by middle names in order to keep the billing data straight. As they chuckled about how often they get confused with many accounts with the same name I noticed that they went to a different desk to look up my account. They also happened to mention that the other person by the same name had just been in there office paying a bill and that is why they were confused about my account being paid. I have been down the road of so many household name companys commiting billing fraud it is certainly beyond the comprehension of most Americans to grasp how often they are being ripped off. The bottom line is I turned in the insurance agent to the state insurance board to investigate the billing 'error' and where it went from there I do not know. But AIG does and the paperwork I have specifically shows one persons account but with two policys and only one being paid for. So AIG is double billing insurance policys yet they would only receive payment on one of them which leaves the other policy as past due or defaulted, but perhaps they even paid out two commissions on the two different policy's yet receive payment on just the one account. So was there ever a loss when the other person never existed except as just a duplicate billing with a few minor changes in order to be in the billing data as two seperate accounts. Seems like huge losses could be reported nationwide using this similar scheme yet no real loss ever occurred except in the computer billing data. I wonder how many false insurance policy's are actually in their billing system that would generate a report of past due or defaulted payments???? And 'Ernst and Young' is probably their accountants as they seem to be the clearinghouse for most of the household name company's that have questionable monthly billing database accounting issues. Of course they want to pay out millions in bonus's for a job well done to their employees, who else is going to work hard at maintaining the customer databases so accurately for P&L qtrl's and tax liability (buydowns) projections. Maybe the same employees who are to receive the bonuses are the very ones who have lots to say about their billing system! I wonder if there is a tie-in to UBS as well. The value of a company can only be measured by the data contained within a bunch of numbers that someone allows in the accounting system... perhaps you may want to purchase stock in that!!! Last edited by Christo888; 03-16-2009 at 06:22 AM.

03-16-2009, 11:50 AM	#12
TruthWillSetUFree Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Illinois Posts: 673	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk I'm confused. Why are they getting these big bonuses when the dollar is slated to collapse? Are they buying people off with their Monopoly money knowing the %^& will hit the fan anyway?

03-16-2009, 06:11 PM	#13
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk The saga continues!............ AP NY atty gen to probe AIG bonuses for fraud Monday March 16, 1:32 pm ET NY attorney general to investigate whether AIG bonus payments constituted fraud ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- New York state's attorney general is demanding that American International Group have details on his desk this afternoon about who is getting its multimillion-dollar bonuses. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says his office will investigate whether recipients of the payments were involved in the insurance giant's decline and whether the payments are fraudulent under state law. President Barack Obama declared Monday that he plans to stop AIG from paying the executive bonuses. Cuomo said he would issue subpoenas at 4 p.m. Monday if he didn't get the names of employees scheduled for bonuses plus information about their work and contracts. Cuomo said he's been investigating AIG compensation arrangements since last fall. http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090316/aig_cuomo.html

03-16-2009, 06:17 PM	#14
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk Can I get a round of applause!!!!!!!.........maybe? LOL!

03-16-2009, 07:28 PM	#15
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk ok there's still more!.......... WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama declared Monday that insurance giant American International Group is in financial straits because of "recklessness and greed" and said he intends to stop it from paying out millions in executive bonuses. "It's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay," Obama said at the outset of an appearance to announce help for small businesses hurt by the deep recession. "How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat," the president said. Obama spoke out in the wake of reports that surfaced over the weekend saying that financially strapped American International Group Inc. was paying substantial bonuses to executives. Noting that AIG has "received substantial sums" of federal aid from the federal government, Obama said he has asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner "to use that leverage and pursue every legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole." "This isn't just a matter of dollars and cents," he added. "It's about our fundamental values." The $165 million was payable to executives by Sunday and was part of a larger total payout reportedly valued at $450 million. The company has benefited from more than $170 billion in a federal rescue. AIG reported this month that it had lost $61.7 billion for the fourth quarter of last year, the largest corporate loss in history. The bulk of the payments at issue cover AIG Financial Products, the unit of the company that sold credit default swaps, the risky contracts that caused massive losses for the insurer. Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, earlier Monday charged that the move to pay bonuses amounted to "rewarding incompetence." "We ought to explore everything that we can through the government to make sure that this money is not wasted," said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. "These people brought this on themselves. Now you're rewarding failure. A lot of these people should be fired, not awarded bonuses. This is horrible. It's outrageous." Frank said he was disgusted, asserting that "these bonuses are going to people who screwed this thing up enormously." "Maybe it's time to fire some people," he said. "We can't keep them from getting bonuses but we can keep them from having their jobs. ... In high school, they wouldn't have gotten retention (bonuses), they would have gotten detention." AIG has agreed to Obama administration requests to restrain future payments. Geithner had pressed the president's case with AIG's chairman, Edward Liddy, last week. "He stepped in and berated them, got them to reduce the bonuses following every legal means he has to do this," said Austan Goolsbee, staff director of President Barack Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090316/...wh/aig_outrage Last edited by Dantheman62; 03-16-2009 at 07:32 PM.

03-16-2009, 07:41 PM	#16
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk ok how about a little hand clap now!

03-17-2009, 04:55 AM	#18
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk ALBANY, N.Y. – New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Monday he has issued subpoenas for the names of American International Group employees given millions of dollars in bonuses despite their possible roles in the insurance giant's near-collapse. Cuomo made good on a threat he made Monday in a letter to AIG's government-appointed chief executive, Edward Liddy, in which he said he would issue administrative subpoenas after 4 p.m. if he didn't get the employees' names, information about their work at AIG's Financial Products subsidiary and the contracts the company said required paying the bonuses. The Financial Products unit sold credit default swaps, the risky contracts that caused massive losses for the insurer. "Four o'clock has come and gone. We haven't got the information. We'll be issuing subpoenas immediately," Cuomo told reporters in a conference call after the deadline. In addition to a list of people set to receive bonuses, Cuomo demanded details about who developed the bonus plans. "Covering up the details of these payments breeds further cynicism and distrust in our already shaken financial system," Cuomo wrote in the letter to Liddy. The $165 million was payable to executives by Sunday and was part of a larger total payout reportedly valued at $450 million. Cuomo said his office stopped AIG from spending $600 million from another bonus pool last fall. He declined Monday to say whether his office will be examining any other bonus and retention money paid by the company. AIG Financial Products "essentially bankrupted the company. Now they want to give these people bonuses for performance and retention," Cuomo said. "That's adding insult to injury." Cuomo said the information should be disclosed to taxpayers bailing out the company and would help him determine whether the bonuses are illegal. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/aig_cuomo

03-17-2009, 05:27 AM	#19
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. government will modify a planned $30 billion capital injection for American International Group Inc to try to recoup hundreds of millions of dollars in controversial bonuses, a Treasury official said on Monday. The U.S. government's actions came after President Barack Obama expressed "outrage" on Monday over the bonuses to AIG employees, and ordered officials to take all legal measures to block them. The Treasury Department plans to attach new provisions to the terms of its latest AIG rescue package, announced on March 2, to force repayment of the bonuses, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Obama said in remarks at the White House he was "choked up with anger" over the executive payments, which is a hot button issue in the deepening recession. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090317/ts_nm/us_aig Last edited by Dantheman62; 03-17-2009 at 05:29 AM.

03-17-2009, 06:09 PM	#20
peaceandlove Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Turtle Island Posts: 2,776	Cuomo: 73 AIG Employees Received Bonuses of $1 Million or More Dan, here is a new one for you. Cuomo: 73 AIG Employees Received Bonuses of $1 Million or More Tuesday, March 17, 2009 New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says 73 employees at American International Group received bonuses of $1 million or more, with one receiving more than $6 million. Cuomo is launching an investigation into the bailed-out company following revelations that it distributed $165 million in executive bonuses. Cuomo reported his latest findings in a letter Tuesday to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House financial services committee. "Already my office has determined that some of these bonuses were staggering in size," Cuomo wrote. Lawmakers have expressed outrage at the bonuses and pledged to retrieve most of the money. In a breakdown of the figures, Cuomo reported that the top recipient at AIG got more than $6.4 million and the top seven received more than $4 million each. "These payments were all made to individuals in the subsidiary whose performance led to crushing losses and the near failure of AIG. Thus, last week, AIG made more than 73 millionaires in the unit which lost so much money that it brought the firm to its knees, forcing a taxpayer bailout," Cuomo wrote. "Something is deeply wrong with this outcome." Cuomo wrote that his office has also obtained the contracts for these employees and found they "shockingly" contain a provision requiring most 2008 bonuses to be 100 percent of their 2007 payments. Though AIG argues that it was contractually obligated to pay out the bonuses, Cuomo cast doubt on that assertion. He said that since certain employees agreed to salaries of $1 for 2009 in exchange for their bonuses, "It appears that AIG had far more leverage than they now claim." Plus he wrote that if the federal government had not stepped in with more than $170 billion in bailout money, "the firm likely would have gone bankrupt, and surely no payments would have been made out of the plan." Cuomo wrote that he will ensure AIG complies with subpoenas he issued for the names of those who received bonuses. Source: http://www.campaignforliberty.com/wire.php?view=3437

03-18-2009, 10:45 AM	#21
peaceandlove Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Turtle Island Posts: 2,776	AIG Employee: "I have a horrible, horrible, horrible feeling... AIG Employee: "I have a horrible, horrible, horrible feeling that this is going to end badly." Posted by Bess Levin, Mar 17, 2009, 11:59am Source: http://dealbreaker.com/2009/03/aig-e...a-horrible.php So, according to reports, the events of the last several days have left AIG scared **less. The fear emanating from the insurer, and specifically Team Financial Products, is two-fold. The first thing causing them to quake in their boots is you, the American taxpayer. You really get scary when it comes to your money. 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." The second thing causing them to almost comically soil themselves, is the monster they've created with their own two hands which, shockingly, the company is yet to officially speak as candidly about as this guy: "It's going to blow up," said a senior Financial Products manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the company. "I have a horrible, horrible, horrible feeling that this is going to end badly." According to Reports article: AIG Offices patrolled by Armed Guards** Excerpt: 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. "It's going to blow up," said a senior Financial Products manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the company. "I have a horrible, horrible, horrible feeling that this is going to end badly." Full Article (a lot of what's been said already in the posts above this one): http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/6016/52/

03-18-2009, 02:17 PM	#22
alyscat Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Washington state Posts: 743	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpu...adminis-1.html So, the administration is saying they didn't know about the bonuses until just a short while ago? And we own over 79% of AIG? SOMEBODY needs to do some oversight. http://www.buffalonews.com/180/story/611215.html However, this might be why... Buffalo story on how members of congress have accepted campaign money, etc. from AIG and it's employees over time. - Gee, you think maybe that's why no one looked reallly hard at AIG?

03-20-2009, 04:23 AM	#24
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: Govt. Says Bank of America Threatens to Sue Employee Willing to Talk AP NY AG expects Merrill bonus names tonight Thursday March 19, 8:09 pm ET NY attorney general expects list of Merrill bonus recipients from Bank of America tonight NEW YORK (AP) -- New York's attorney general expects to receive the names of Merrill Lynch employees who got millions in bonuses before Bank of America Corp. bought the brokerage. Alex Detrick, spokesman for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, said Cuomo expected the names Thursday evening. Cuomo is investigating whether Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America and Merrill failed to provide proper disclosures to shareholders about the bonuses, which came just as Bank of America requested more federal aid to help it absorb losses linked to the investment bank. Bank of America spokesman Scott Silvestri also said he expects the details of the Merrill bonuses will be delivered to Cuomo's office Thursday night. Earlier Thursday, Cuomo's office also received a list of American International Group Inc. employees who received a total of $165 million in retention bonuses.