Greenberg: AIG, Wall Street bailout a ‘government ripoff’

October 2, 2014 by Andrew Zajac, Patrick G. Lee, David Voreacos

(Bloomberg) — In Maurice “Hank” Greenberg’s telling, the $182 billion taxpayer bailout that saved American International Group Inc. and perhaps all of Wall Street during the 2008 financial collapse was a government rip-off.

It trampled the rights of shareholders, denying them more favorable terms offered to banks and companies that foundered during the meltdown, according to Greenberg, who built AIG into the world’s biggest insurer before leaving in 2005.

Greenberg’s Starr International Co., AIG’s largest shareholder when the financial crisis struck, sued the government, calling its assumption of 80% of the insurer’s stock an unconstitutional “taking” of property that requires at least $25 billion in compensation. Click here to read…

Originally Posted at LifeHealthPro on September 29, 2014 by Andrew Zajac, Patrick G. Lee, David Voreacos.