Former CEO of AIG, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg Goldman, gov ‘rolled AIG’

Former CEO of American International Group Inc., Maurice “Hank” Greenberg

Former CEO of AIG, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg Goldman, gov ‘rolled AIG’
Conspiracy to pay Sachs: Greenberg
By PAUL THARP
Last Updated: 9:12 AM, January 27, 2013

Payback’s a bitch. Just ask veteran insurance titan Hank Greenberg.

In his new book, “The AIG Story” (co-written with Lawrence A. Cunningham and coming out this week), Greenberg says that in the summer of 2008, the company was in contentious talks with Goldman Sachs and other investment banks to settle trillions in claims on questionable derivatives linked to debt obligations that Wall Street banks were writing.

Before any deal could be brokered between Chief Executive Robert Willumstad and the banks, Lehman Bros. filed for bankruptcy, and AIG, along with hundreds of other firms, were no longer able to fund day-to-day operations.

Willumstad was talking with NY Fed chief Tim Geithner and Treasury officials the weekend prior to Lehman’s filing, to get a temporary loan.

Greenberg points out, “The Fed opened its discount window to nearly any applicant, dispensing hundreds of billions in loans to nearly any applicant. Dexia of Belgium, Depfa Bank of Ireland, the Bank of Scotland, and the Arab Banking Corp., then 29 percent owned by the Libyan central bank.”

But on that Monday, Willumstad was told by Treasury chief Hank Paulson and Geithner that the window was slammed for AIG.

“Had the Fed opened the discount window to AIG . . . the liquidity crisis would have been nipped in the bud.”

https://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/goldman_gov_rolled_aig_iyYLSJALcSWtDKNHbJzxSK