NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, the legendary former chief executive of AIG, declined to answer questions Saturday from the New York Attorney General's office about his role in a controversial transaction between AIG and another insurer. Instead, Greenberg invoked his Fifth Amendment rights, his defense lawyer confirmed.
Questions about the deal led to Greenberg's forced retirement from the once-mighty insurance giant three years ago. Since 2005, lawyers on Greenberg's civil defense team had insisted that their client was eager to testify about the transaction, a reinsurance deal that AIG made with Berkshire Hathaway's (BRKB) Gen Re unit.
They said repeatedly that as long as he was provided with the results of AIG's internal investigation of the deal - which he eventually was - he would answer all of state regulators' questions.
Greenberg's chance to testify finally came on Saturday, but he declined. It was a stunning turnaround for a man who along with associates has spent just shy of a quarter of a billion dollars in legal and public relations fees to tell his side of the story and clear his name.
The questions involved Greenberg's role in a phony $500 million reinsurance transaction with General Re that masked a problem with AIG's loss reserves. The transaction generated intense regulatory scrutiny and resulted in then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer suing Greenberg and his former chief financial officer Howard Smith for civil fraud. The civil case is now being pursued by Spitzer's successor, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
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1 comment:
Smart move on his part always take the fifth when your guilty.
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