New York Files Civil Complaint Against AIG, Former Executives
By IAN MCDONALD
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 26, 2005 3:13 p.m.
New York state authorities filed a civil complaint against American International Group and two former top executives, alleging that the big insurer improperly manipulated its financial results and repeatedly duped regulators and investors.
New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office and the New York State Insurance Department alleged that AIG engaged in numerous fraudulent business transactions that exaggerated the strength of the company's core underwriting business, propping up its stock price.
The alleged wrongdoing was "an apparent effort to improve the company's financial results," even as AIG "was a well-run and profitable company that didn't need to cheat," New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said in a news release. New York Insurance Superintendent Howard Mills cited "compelling evidence that investors and regulators were misled over an extended period of time," but noted that AIG's current management has taken steps "to restore the company's credibility."
INSURANCE PROBE
• Summons and Complaint
• Page One: AIG Casualty: the Zarb-Greenberg Alliance
• Tracking the Numbers: Greenberg Hitches His Wagon to Starr
• Page One: Former AIG Chief Threatens Lawsuit
AIG, one of the world's leading sellers of property-casualty insurance to businesses and life-insurance products to individuals, is cooperating with investigators. It said it would decline to comment until it had the opportunity to review the suit.
The two executives named as defendants are former AIG Chief Executive Officer Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg and former Chief Financial Officer Howard I. Smith as defendants. In March, amid pressure from the company's board as regulatory scrutiny mounted, Mr. Greenberg resigned as CEO and chairman; he had headed AIG for nearly four decades and transformed it into one of the world's biggest financial companies. Also in March, Mr. Smith was fired for not cooperating with the investigation.
The suit marks the first formal charges to come from the multiple and overlapping probes that have been examining whether the giant insurer used improper accounting to sharpen its financial results and improve financial ratios that are closely watched on Wall Street. A state grand jury began last week to determine if any individual actions at AIG merit criminal indictments, and Messrs. Greenberg and Smith are among individuals it is looking at, people familiar with the matter have said. The grand jury is expected to last about a month.
Mr. Greenberg's representatives have said that AIG's planned financial restatement includes transactions that were approved by the company and its independent auditors. Mr. Greenberg has told associates he believes he did nothing wrong in the matters. Previously, an attorney representing Mr. Smith has noted that executives at AIG operating units signed off on the same statements now being questioned. Attorneys for the two men couldn't immediately be reached.
The Securities & Exchange Commission and Justice Department also are investigating AIG's books, but aren't involved in the New York suit.
The suit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, alleges a wide range of improper accounting and activities. Many of the maneuvers already have been publicized, disclosed through leaks in the investigations or in one of the two lengthy releases that AIG has issued detailing findings of internal probes. In the most recent, AIG said various maneuvers had the effect of overstating investment income, masking underwriting losses and valuing assets too highly. AIG has said it would correct the errors, reducing the company's net worth by an estimated $2.7 billion, or 3%.
The suit, which seeks damages and disgorgement of profits from any illegal transactions, contained at least one new allegation. It contends AIG "papered over losses in a Brazilian subsidiary by linking the losses to a Taiwanese subsidiary," according to a news release summarizing the state's suit.
The previously publicized improper moves include alleged "sham transactions with a reinsurance company to create the appearance of insurance reserves where none existed," according to the news release. Insurers buy reinsurance from other insurers to offload some of the risk of policies they sell. Mr. Greenberg "personally conceived and negotiated" the state's release said. The transactions took place in late 2000 and early 2001 with Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s General Re unit, and boosted AIG's premium revenue and claims reserves by $500 million each.
The suit also accuses AIG of hiding underwriting losses from an auto-warranty business by transferring the losses to an off-shore entity that it secretly controlled, and creating false underwriting income via the purchase of life-insurance policies from owners who wanted to cash out, the release said. As previously reported, authorities have been examining whether AIG booked gains from these transactions prematurely.
Additionally, the suit contends that AIG "repeatedly deceived state regulators about AIG's ties to off-shore entities." In its recent disclosures, AIG has acknowledged undisclosed ties to at least one reinsurer, and said that accounting changes tied to various reinsurers account for about $1.2 billion of its estimated $2.7 billion hit to net worth.
The suit also cites a previously reported scheme in which AIG allegedly improperly booked worker's-compensation premiums as general liability and other coverage, reducing the company's taxes and other assessments.
Separately, Morgan Stanley insurance analyst William Wilt said in a report today that his analysis of market-share figures for workers' compensation coverage indicate that AIG probably avoided $10 million to $12 million a year for two years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with a total of about $60-70 million over the entire period. In all, Mr. Wilt concluded, "There are enough other reasons to worry; set this issue on the back burner."
AIG and its auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, are working feverishly to finish the firm's thrice-delayed annual report by the company's self-imposed May 31 deadline. So far the company largely has blamed its accounting issues on the ability of "former senior executives" to circumvent internal checks and balances in the financial-reporting system.
Mr. Greenberg met in Dublin Wednesday with fellow shareholders of a private firm he has headed for years, Starr International Co., which holds about 12% of AIG's shares. The group didn't commit to any particular path, according to a person familiar with the matter. The firm is considering becoming an investment entity both within and beyond the insurance sector.
Write to Ian McDonald at ian.mcdonald@wsj.com |
