Uh-oh. We have a horrible feeling that the AIG employee who told the Washington Post today that he had a “horrible, horrible, horrible feeling that this is going to end badly” might have actually just wet his pants. New York Attorney General and Official Bonus Buster Andrew Cuomo just dropped the numbers of individual bonuses received by executives in AIG’s now-infamous Financial Products unit into the steaming cauldron of fury that has been brewing since we found out said bonuses existed this weekend, and — surprise! — knowing who got how much is not about to cool anyone down. “Given A.I.G.’s fragile state,” the Times says, “the numbers are eye-popping.”
The highest bonus was $6.4 million, and six other employees received more than $4 million, according to Mr. Cuomo. Another 15 people received bonuses of more than $2 million, and another 51 people received bonuses between $1 million and $2 million, Mr. Cuomo said. Eleven of those who received “retention” bonuses of $1 million or more are no longer working at A.I.G., including one who received $4.6 million, he said.
The Bonus Buster did not provide the names of the employees who received the bonuses (he wouldn’t want to bear the responsibility of whatever action Grassley decides to take), but he is looking for a reckoning. “A.I.G. 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,” he wrote in a letter to his friend-in-outrage Barney Frank, whose House Financial Services Committee will grill AIG CEO Edward Liddy tomorrow. “Something is deeply wrong with this outcome. I hope the Committee will address it head on.” The Times, which has a scan of the letter, doesn’t show us Frank’s response, but knowing him we can only imagine he texted back: “Someone will be on their knees all right 2morrow haha.”
Rage at AIG Swells As Bonuses Go Out [WP]
Cuomo Details Million-Dollar Bonuses at A.I.G. [DealBook/NYT]
