Congressional Democrats Frank Capuano (MA) and Peter Welch (VT) have sent the loudest message to AIG's board yet, The Hill reports.
The insurance company just paid back $182 billion worth of taxpayer bailout money it received throughout the financial crisis. AIG was bailed out in 2008 because it was on the hook for billions of dollars worth of bad mortgage bonds that threatened to drive it into bankruptcy until the government stepped in.
Now tomorrow, AIG's board will consider joining its former CEO Hank Greenberg in a lawsuit that alleges the government overstepped its bounds and hurt AIG shareholders during the bailout process.
Capuano and Welch had some choice words for the board about that (from The Hill):
"Don't do it. Don't even think about it," Reps. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) wrote in their letter to AIG Chairman Robert Miller.
"AIG became the poster company for Wall Street greed, fiscal mismanagement, and executive bonuses — the taxpayer and economy be damned. Now, AIG apparently seeks to become the poster company for corporate ingratitude and chutzpah," they wrote.
"Taxpayers are still furious that they rescued a company whose own conduct brought it down. Don't rub salt in the wounds with yet another reckless decision that is on par with the reckless decisions that led to the bailout in the first place."
Tomorrow should be fun, then.
