AIG (AIG) Bonuses: Who's To Say They Did Not Earn Them?

In a letter from NYS Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to Rep Barney Frank, the AG’s office disclosed the results of its investigation of the amount of money paid to certain AIG (AIG) employees as bonuses.

One executive made $6.4 million. The top seven in terms of compensation received $4 million or more each, and seventy-three earned over $1 million.

What the letter does not say is what the criteria for the bonuses was and whether those criteria were in any way reasonable. It also does not disclose who signed the bonus agreements or approved the payouts. Documents the AG reviewed do show that those that were paid the incentives were promised at least 100% of the bonuses they got in 2007.

In other words, Cuomo’s disclosures are close to useless in terms of revealing the reasons the contracts were written the way that they were and who was responsible for them.

Douglas A. McIntyre