Get bailed out - go on a $440K spa retreat!

[imported_elp6n]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/....ap/index.html

Lawmakers steamed over ritzy AIG retreat after bailout

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Days after it got a federal bailout, American International Group Inc. spent $440,000 on a posh California retreat for its executives, complete with spa treatments, banquets and golf outings, according to lawmakers investigating the company's meltdown.

AIG sent its executives to the coastal St. Regis resort south of Los Angeles, California, even as the company tapped into an $85 billion loan from the government it needed to stave off bankruptcy.

The resort tab included $23,380 worth of spa treatments for AIG employees, according to invoices the resort turned over to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The retreat didn't include anyone from the financial products division that nearly drove AIG under, but lawmakers still were enraged over thousands of dollars spent on outing for executives of AIG's main U.S. life insurance subsidiary.

"Average Americans are suffering economically. They're losing their jobs, their homes and their health insurance," the committee's chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, scolded the company during a lengthy opening statement at a hearing Tuesday.

"Yet less than one week after the taxpayers rescued AIG, company executives could be found wining and dining at one of the most exclusive resorts in the nation."

Former AIG CEO Robert Willumstad, who lost his job a day after the Federal Reserve put up the $85 billion on Sept. 16, said he was not familiar with the conference and would not have gone along with it.

"It seems very inappropriate," Willumstad said in response to questioning from Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland.

"Those executives should be fired," Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama said at a debate with Sen. John McCain on Tuesday, referring to the retreat participants. Obama also said AIG should give the Treasury $440,000 to cover the costs of the retreat.

But Eric Dinallo, superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department, said he could see the value of such a retreat under the circumstances.

"Having been at large global companies and knowing what condition AIG was in ... the absolute worst thing that could have happened" would have been for employees and underwriters in its life insurance subsidiary to flee the company.

"I do agree there is some profligate spending there, but the concept of bringing all the major employees together ... to ensure that the $85 billion could be as greatly as possible paid back would have been not a crazy corporate decision," Dinallo told the House committee.

The hearing disclosed that AIG executives hid the full range of its risky financial products from auditors as losses mounted, according to documents released by the committee, which is examining the chain of events that forced the government to bail out the conglomerate.

The panel sharply criticized AIG's former top executives, who cast blame on each other for the company's financial woes.

"You have cost my constituents and the taxpayers of this country $85 billion and run into the ground one of the most respected insurance companies in the history of our country," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York. "You were just gambling billions, possibly trillions of dollars."

AIG, crippled by huge losses linked to mortgage defaults, was forced last month to accept the $85 billion government loan that gives the U.S. the right to an 80 percent stake in the company.

[89bluedevil]

I saw that last night. It seems as if these CEOs think that they are not accountable to anyone.

That is de-regulation for you. "Somebody grab their hands while we reach in their pocket."

[CoeburnCane]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Spuds</div><div class="ubbcode-body">That is de-regulation for you. "Somebody grab their hands while we reach in their pocket."</div></div>

This is what our resident pure-capitalist apparently approves of.

[neutral88]

Product of about 40 years of gree/money driven presidents....

Who do you know can even afford to run for president without being ties to these multi billion dollar companies????

This country is on a long downhill slide

[imported_elp6n]

Awesome. They want more money now!
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/08/news...ex.htm?cnn=yes

October 8, 2008: 6:37 PM ET


AIG hits up Fed for more money
Three weeks after an $85 billion bailout, AIG is turning to the New York Fed for additional funding.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The New York Federal Reserve is lending up to $37.8 billion to American International Group to give the troubled insurer access to much-needed cash.

In exchange, AIG is giving the New York Fed investment-grade, fixed-income securities that it had previously lent out to other institutions for a fee. Those institutions are now returning these securities and want their money back.

The new program, announced Wednesday, is on top of the $85 billion the federal government agreed to lend to AIG last month to prevent the global company from collapsing. AIG said last Friday it had drawn down $61 billion.

The lending program is a way for AIG to get funding for its businesses, said a New York Fed spokesman. The system is similar to lending facilities the Fed provides to banks, which can also exchange collateral for cash.

The latest announcement does not jeopardize the government's ability to recoup its loan to AIG, experts said.

"AIG will repay the loan," said Stewart Johnson, portfolio manager at Philo Smith, an investment bank specializing in insurance. "It's just a matter of how much of themselves they will have to sell."

Paying back a big debt
On Sept. 16, the Federal Reserve Board agreed to lend AIG $85 billion, using the company's assets as collateral. The loan is expected to be repaid from the proceeds of the asset sales. Interest on the line of credit is steep, and the government took a 79.9% stake in the company.

Last week, AIG said it planned to hold onto its property-and-casualty insurance businesses, while selling off the rest of the company to pay the massive debt.

Those other business lines include its aircraft leasing unit; asset-management division; retirement services; and U.S. life insurance operations.

AIG chief executive Edward Liddy, who was installed by the Federal Reserve last month after the bailout, on a conference call last Friday was optimistic about the potential for the asset sales.

"We fully expect to emerge from this with a capital structure that's fit to fight," he said. "Our insurance businesses...are strong and well-capitalized."

But some analysts are more skeptical. "The current disruption in the credit markets could make it difficult to sell businesses at attractive valuations," ratings agency Standard and Poor's said.

CreditSights valued the units AIG planned to sell at $32.9 billion and the divisions it will keep at $86 billion. These figures do not include the sale of a minority stake in its foreign life insurance operations, valued at $133.1 billion.

First to hit the market will likely be units tied to airline leasing and consumer lending, both of which require funding from the debt markets, which is hard to come by these days. International Lease Finance Corp. could command more than $7 billion and American General Finance Corp. will likely bring in about $2 billion, according to CreditSights.

Once AIG sells its assets, it faces many hurdles in stabilizing its property and casualty insurance divisions, experts said.