Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wayners who wrote (678945)	4/11/2005 7:27:48 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 769670

eonron ?? here al bore lawyer working for a crook Ex-Chief to Decline to Answer Questions in A.I.G. Inquiry By JENNY ANDERSON he former chief executive of the insurance giant American International Group, Maurice R. Greenberg, will not answer questions on Tuesday from regulators who are investigating the company's transactions, his lawyer, David Boies, said in a statement today. Citing a "great number" of transactions under investigation, the "thousands of documents" and the fact that some deals took place five to 20 years ago, Mr. Boies said his client needed more time and would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The transactions under investigation include a deal in 2000 between A.I.G. and General Re, a unit of Berkshire Hathaway, that helped A.I.G. bolster its financial reserves. Berkshire Hathaway is controlled by the financier Warren E. Buffett, and he was interviewed by investigators for several hours today about the deal. Mr. Buffett is expected to have told investigators that while he was aware of the transaction, he never passed judgment on its propriety. Regulators consider Mr. Buffett a cooperating witness; he has not been accused of wrongdoing. "I told them everything I know," Mr. Buffett told reporters this afternoon as he left the Securities and Exchange Commission's Northeast regional office in lower Manhattan. Lawyers for Mr. Greenberg tried to persuade regulators to limit the scope of what will be addressed during a deposition on Tuesday in the office of Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney general, according to people close to the situation. Mr. Spitzer said in a television interview Sunday that he had strong evidence Mr. Greenberg committed fraud in initiating the 2000 transaction between A.I.G. and General Re. The $500 million transaction with General Re was initiated by Mr. Greenberg to bolster A.I.G.'s reserves, a critical gauge of an insurance company's solvency and strength. Regulators and A.I.G. said they thought the deal, which was accounted for as insurance, should have been characterized as a loan, as there was no legitimate risk transfer. Other transactions are also under investigation, and A.I.G. the company has already restated earnings downward by $1.7 billion. "These are very serious offenses, over a billion dollars of accounting frauds that A.I.G. has already acknowledged," Mr. Spitzer said on "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" on ABC. "That company was a black box, run with an iron fist by a C.E.O. who did not tell the public the truth," Mr. Spitzer said. "That is the problem." Faced with wide-ranging questions, Mr. Greenberg had been expected to invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. Regulators have not allowed the deposition to be postponed nor permitted the questioning to be limited to the Gen Re transaction. Mr. Spitzer said he had not uncovered evidence against Mr. Buffett, and he reiterated that Mr. Buffett was a witness, not a target of the investigation. The board of American International Group removed Mr. Greenberg as chief executive in March and he later resigned as chairman. Both A.I.G. and Berkshire Hathaway are cooperating with the investigation.