AIG finally discloses who got the $$$; Obama vows to try to block bonuses.

Thinkprogress:

After all the weekend uproar over the millions in bonuses, AIG decided to come clean on how their our bailout money was spent:

AIG and the Federal Reserve have been pressured for months by some members of Congress to reveal the names of the banks and other institutions that were paid after the company -- teetering on the brink of failure because of plummeting investments -- received an $85-billion loan from the Fed in September.

AIG's downward spiral was accelerated by losses related to its huge business of insuring high-risk mortgage securities against default, via complex agreements known as credit default swaps. As the housing meltdown worsened last year, AIG's guarantees, which the company had sold to major banks and brokerages in the U.S. and abroad, came back to haunt it.

The federal rescue of the insurer has since doubled in size, and U.S. taxpayers now own 80% of the company.

The company said it shelled out nearly $100 billion in the final few months of the year to satisfy some of the contracts it had outstanding under credit default swaps and other insurance and investment agreements.

The beneficiaries included major foreign banks such as Germany's Deutsche Bank and France's Societe Generale, as well as U.S. titans Goldman Sachs Group and Merrill Lynch & Co.

Firedoglake has posted AIG's argument for paying the bonuses.

AIG has been advised by outside counsel that a breach of the retention plan would subject it to claims for not only the contractually owed payments, but also penalties and fees under the Connecticut Wage Act. The Wage Act provides for the recovery of double damages and attorneys’ fees when wages are improperly withheld and the employer’s refusal to pay wages lacks a good faith basis. (Conn. Gen. Stat. §31-72.)3 In addition, individual managers who decide to withhold wages that are due are individually liable for violation of the Wage Act.

NYTimes:
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York on Monday sent a letter to the American International Group, demanding more information about the employees who are set to receive about $165 million in bonus payments. Mr. Cuomo’s letter, demand[s] the information by 4 p.m. on Monday under threat of subpoena . . .