NEW YORK, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- The financial plight of American International Group seems unabated by the company's $143 billion in U.S. bailout funds, one expert said.
"AIG is nothing more than a pass-through being charged 14 percent interest," said Lee Wolosky, an attorney for AIG's largest shareholder, Starr International, The Washington Post reported Monday.
"Company assets are eroding on a daily basis; asset sales have not begun and can only be at fire-sale prices in the current market," Wolosky told the Post.
Experts have questioned the strategy of keeping AIG going, instead of allowing it to declare bankruptcy in September, when the company was overrun by demands for it to pay off its guarantees.
But, the company was not so much the focus of the bailout as the potential domino effect that might have occurred had the company collapsed, David Shiff, of Shiff's Insurance Observer said.
"The point isn't to save AIG; it's to save the U.S. financial system," he said.
"I think they were afraid to find out who else goes under if you let AIG fail," he said. "But right now, no one knows if this is going to work."
