Meet the F*@kers. AIG's Joseph Cassano

[sixmile]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/07/aig-insurance-us-economy
Hedge Fund Hotel Yields Up Secrets
'It was in this London office of AIG that big-brained financial whiz-kids created a casino offshoot of the once-mighty insurer that spectacularly wrecked the company, racking up billions of dollars in losses on arcane derivatives, swaps and contracts. Fatally undermined by the unit's wheeler-dealing culture, AIG crashed to the US's biggest corporate loss of $61.7bn (£43bn) for the final quarter of 2008 and is limping along the brink of oblivion, saved from bankruptcy by an eye-watering $150bn of emergency aid from US taxpayers.

The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, wasted few words in condemning the division's antics, telling Congress this week: "This was a hedge fund, basically, that was attached to a large and stable insurance company."

The Serious Fraud Office is examining exactly what type of business took place on the fifth floor of One Curzon Street, where a team of some 225 staff were managed by a policeman's son from New York, Joseph Cassano, who boasted a degree in politics from Brooklyn College and lived in a company flat behind Harrods. He was scorned by one California congressman, Jackie Speier, as "the golden boy of the casino in London".

The division dates back to 1987, when a small group of former traders from the junk bond firm Drexel Burnham Lambert persuaded AIG's then chairman, Hank Greenberg, that there was a highly lucrative opportunity in offering insurance that would protect banks against default on debt or against fluctuations in the value of derivatives.'



Piece of shit.
$150 billion so far.