NEW YORK, March 23 (UPI) -- New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Monday nine of the top 10 recipients have returned bonuses doled out by American International Group Inc.
Cuomo also announced that 15 of the top 20 bonus awardees in the troubled insurance giant's controversial financial products division had returned their bonuses, The New York Times reported Monday. During a conference call with journalists, Cuomo said the money being returned amounts to about $30 million, the newspaper said.
He said he expected about $80 million to be returned by U.S. employees of AIG, who accounted for a little less than half of the $165 million that was distributed as retention bonuses. News accounts of the bonuses touched off a wave of public anger in recent weeks, coming to a head last week when public officials and media commentators argued for days about who was to blame for language in President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package ensuring that the bonuses would be paid.
Cuomo announced Thursday he had received a list of executives who received so-called retention payouts at AIG, which disputed a report Saturday by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal that its employees were paid $218 million in bonuses, not $165 million.
Blumenthal's office said the $218 million total was calculated by his office based on documents provided Friday by AIG, the Hartford (Conn.) Courant reported.
AIG spokesman Joseph Norton told the Courant that AIG Chairman Edward Liddy has already explained the payments to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
