AIG execs' retreat after bailout angers lawmakers (186 hits)
WASHINGTON - Days after it got a federal bailout, American International Group Inc. spent $440,000 on a posh California retreat for its executives, complete with spa treatments, banquets and golf outings, according to lawmakers investigating the company's meltdown.
ADVERTISEMENT
AIG sent its executives to the coastal St. Regis resort south of Los Angeles even as the company tapped into an $85 billion loan from the government it needed to stave off bankruptcy. The resort tab included $23,380 worth of spa treatments for AIG employees, according to invoices the resort turned over to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The retreat didn't include anyone from the financial products division that nearly drove AIG under, but lawmakers still were enraged over thousands of dollars spent on outing for executives of AIG's main U.S. life insurance subsidiary.
"Average Americans are suffering economically. They're losing their jobs, their homes and their health insurance," the committee's chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., scolded the company during a lengthy opening statement at a hearing Tuesday. "Yet less than one week after the taxpayers rescued AIG, company executives could be found wining and dining at one of the most exclusive resorts in the nation."
Former AIG CEO Robert Willumstad, who lost his job a day after the Federal Reserve put up the $85 billion on Sept. 16, said he was not familiar with the conference and would not have gone along with it.
The monies set aside from this bailout or rescue mission (John McCain call it) should have a strict over site committee and every dime should be accounted for...by the American Taxpayers, this is going to happen unless the public speak out against it...we need to call our representative on a daily basis, email and fax this article until something is done. Remember it's out tax dollars they are spending…
Wednesday, October 8th 2008 at 10:46AM
Beverly Brewer
Your absoultely right Beverly!
Wednesday, October 8th 2008 at 11:36AM
Shalonda Glisson
I didn't read what disciplinary action was taken against the executives. What did Congress do about the gross expenditure? That's the question. Obviously, AIG thinks this is a big joke. Why would they think anything else? They didn't lose anything. The government bailed them out. So, why should they act any different? What lesson did they learn? They knew all along that the government would bail them out. That's why they didn't cancel their big spa vacation. It takes time to plan something like that for so many people. The whole time congress was deciding whether to bail them out, did they ever even think of canceling this vacation? No. They knew they would get bailed out. It was arranged years ago. What disciplinary action did they receive for getting into this mess in the first place? NONE! So, again, why should they act any different. If your three year old keeps turning the television on and off, and you tell him to stop, and he doesn't. If you do nothing about it, won't he keep turning the TV on and off? Without consequences, what reason do they have to do differently?
Wednesday, October 8th 2008 at 3:57PM
Guest Visitor
Shame on AIG!
Wednesday, October 8th 2008 at 5:38PM
Jen Fad
