Reply #18: Here a story that might cheer you up a little

[Up2Late]

AIG's Greenberg to Retire This Week

Tue Mar 29, 2005 01:10 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, who turned American International Group Inc. into a global insurance powerhouse, is stepping down as chairman this week as investigations into AIG's business practices mount.

After the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission put 10 new possibly questionable transactions under scrutiny, AIG said late on Monday that former Nasdaq chairman and AIG board member Frank Zarb will assume the duties of chairman on March 30 or March 31 when Greenberg returns from a two-week trip to Asia and Europe. Greenberg, 79, took the reins of the company in 1967, transforming it from an obscure seller of life insurance overseas into a market leader with nearly $100 billion in revenue and 93,000 employees worldwide.

Greenberg, who had become the insurance industry's dean, had already stepped down as chief executive two weeks ago as AIG became the latest insurance company to face scrutiny by regulators looking into possible abusive practices.

The SEC has subpoenaed 12 executives of AIG in an expanding probe of the insurer, sources close to the case said on Monday. AIG declined to discuss the substance of the investigation. The SEC also declined to comment. Government investigators had focused initially on a deal done in 2000 involving New York-based AIG and General Re, a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., that may have artificially boosted AIG's reserves, the sources said. But the SEC probe has since expanded to cover 10 other potentially questionable transactions and possible accounting errors valued at about $1 billion, the sources said.

(more at link above)