NEW YORK, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Dick Grasso, the former New York Stock Exchange chairman, pressured a major Big Board floor firm to help boost a stock's value, it was reported Friday.
Grasso was said to have urged the purchase of shares of giant insurer American International Group Inc. after receiving written complaints from AIG Chairman Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, according to people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal said.
In an Oct. 23, 2002, letter to Grasso, Greenberg reportedly complained that Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, the "specialist" or NYSE floor-trading firm responsible for keeping orderly markets in AIG stock, needed to commit more of its own money to buy AIG shares, which had been volatile.
The unusual move involving buying of one of the Big Board's largest stocks raises questions about whether Grasso favored AIG because Greenberg had been on the NYSE committee that had set up Grasso's controversial pay package, which led to his ouster.
