The current chief executive at AIG has blamed the company’s losses on the actions of his forebear, accusing the former exec of creating a doomed financial products unit within the insurer. Current CEO Edward M. Liddy said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday that former chief executive Maurice R. Greenberg is to blame for the insurer’s epic losses in the last year.
“The formation of [AIG Financial Products], which has literally brought us to our knees,” said Liddy, “that happened on [Greenberg’s] watch. The compensation systems that have gone astray happened on his watch.”
A spokesperson for Greenberg countered Liddy’s claims, saying that AIG’s losses “never would have happened, and in fact did not happen” under Greenberg’s tenure. Greenberg resigned as AIG’s CEO in 2005 amid allegations of accounting fraud.
AIG announced Q4 losses of $61.7 billion yesterday, the largest single-quarter loss in corporate history. Total losses for the year totaled $99.3 billion, or $37.84/share. The losses coincided with an announcement by the federal government that it would provide the country’s largest insurer with an additional $30 billion in bailout funds.