A federal judge has ended a dispute over document access betweenAmerican International Group and the Starr companies controlled byformer AIG Chairman Maurice Greenberg.

U.S. District Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in Manhattan saidWednesday he was granting equal access to the material, whichincludes regulatory filings and other business records, to both AIGas well as C.V Starr & Co. Inc. and Starr InternationalCompany.

Starr brokerage and managing general agent entities and AIG wereonce linked. After his ouster from AIG during an investigation ofaccounting irregularities, Mr. Greenberg retained control of Starrand began a bitter separation process from his former company thathas led to a number of continuing court battles over clients andbusiness operations.

Since Mr. Greenberg's departure last year, current AIG boardmembers have sold their stock in Starr, which holds a substantialportion of AIG stock.

The documents at issue have all been impounded by the Securitiesand Exchange Commission, which has an investigation underway thatis probing the alleged misuse of finite reinsurance to boost AIG'sbalance sheet and persons “who may have participated in AIG'ssecurities laws violations.”

Earlier this year, AIG agreed to pay $1.64 billion to settlestate and federal charges of securities fraud, bid-rigging andfailure to pay proper contributions to various state workers'compensation funds.

Brooke Parker, a representative for Starr, said the companyregards the judge's ruling as a victory since they have beenpursuing access to the documents since April 2005. An AIGspokesman, Chris Winans, had no comment.

Lawyers for AIG said in court that the documents were in“hundreds of boxes” located on six floors of AIG's New Yorkheadquarters at 70 Pine Street, as well as at “other locationsaround the city and around the world where there are AIG documentslocated.”

The judge said no original files can be removed, copies are tobe made, and if there are disputes over a particular item he willrule on it.