WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Much of the U.S. cash injected into financial institutions in 2008 helped out overseas companies, a Congressional Oversight Panel report says.
The report, scheduled to be released Thursday, said the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program was not targeted as carefully as similar efforts by other governments, The Washington Post reported.
Ten percent of the money, $70 billion, went to American International Group to keep the insurance giant from collapse, the report said. AIG received twice what France spent on its entire program and half the money Germany put into the financial system, with much of the U.S. money going to AIG's partners in Europe.
"The point we make forcefully in this report is that there were no data about where this money was going, no information about where this money was going," Elizabeth Warren, a professor at Harvard Law School who chaired the panel.
She said it was difficult for Congress and the executive branch to "make a deliberate policy choice" without detailed information. The report concluded financial regulatory agencies should gather data about the normal movement of capital as well as documentation of what happened to TARP funds.
The Congressional Oversight Panel was established by Congress as part of the legislation authorizing the U.S. Treasury to spend $700 billion to stabilize the U.S. economy.
