[BonzoHansen]

Originally Posted by SteveR

Hangin' with Kenneth Lay on a beach in Thailand

Ken Lay is dead IIRC. I remember smiling when I heard the news.


FWIW, it appears the AIG deal was a 'routine' broker junket, very common in the insurance and financial world. I never thought they were efficient uses of company money, but those big $$ producers need to have their ‘egos’ stroked or they threaten to take their business elsewhere.

AIG CEO: Retreat Criticized By Dems Wasn't For Its Employees
10/08 1:13 am (ON)
Story 0650 (AIG)

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

American International Group Inc. (AIG) Chief Executive Edward M. Liddy said a subsidiary's event that was criticized during a House committee hearing Tuesday was for top independent agents, not employees.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Liddy said the agents were top business producers for the company, and of the 100 attendees, only 10 were employees of the subsidiary.

"No AIG executives from headquarters attended," the letter said, also noting that the meeting was planned months before the federal government gave the insurance giant an $85 billion loan to help it survive a liquidity crisis.

During testimony by former AIG executives before the House Government Oversight Committee, some Democrats complained that less than a week after the federal bailout, AIG held a weeklong retreat at the pricey St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif., where rooms can cost more than $1,000 a night. Invoices distributed by the House committee show AIG paid more than $440,000 to the resort, including nearly $7,000 for golf and $23,000 in spa charges.

In the letter to Paulson, Liddy also said AIG is re-evaluating all expenses and "is focused on doing what is necessary to address our capital structure, repay the Fed credit facility and emerge as a healthy global insurer."

He also noted the company's insurance businesses continue to operate normally

AIG's shares recently traded at $3.33, down 5.1%.