AIG staffers resisted sacrificing bonuses

WASHINGTON, March 18 (UPI) -- AIG staffers turned down a request by the insurance giant's new management last year to forgo their controversial "retention" bonuses, sources say.

News that current and former executives of the bailed-out company would collect $450 million in bonuses through 2010 set off a storm of protest from the public and Washington lawmakers after AIG collected $170 billion in taxpayer bailouts. But the outrage could have been avoided if the employees had taken up CEO Edward Liddy's suggestion last year that he bonuses be sacrificed, the Washington publication The Hill reported Wednesday.

"We suggested that early on, but there are people who feel this money was due them," a source close to the company told the publication.

The employees, known as "quants," who developed the complex computer algorithms behind the complicated hedges and trades that brought down the company, fiercely resisted any notion they should sacrifice their bonuses, the source told The Hill.

Seventy-three AIG employees have received bonuses of $1 million or more, company information subpoenaed by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo revealed.