The ongoing battle between ousted American International Groupfounder and chairman Maurice Greenberg and his former associatestook an ugly turn last week in a new suit filed in New York StateSupreme Court.

Four C.V. Starr & Co. Inc. subsidiaries--Starr Tech, StarrAviation, C.V. Starr & Co. and American International MarineAgency--filed the action in New York State Supreme Court, acounty-level tribunal.

The lawsuit accuses AIG of information stealing, employeepoaching and other wrongdoing in an attempt to derail the Starrsubsidiaries' efforts to break away from AIG.

Starr brokerage and managing general agent operations were onceintertwined with AIG but began an acrimonious separation after Mr.Greenberg was ousted last year during a New York investigation ofaccounting and other irregularities at AIG that led the insurer toagree to a $1.64 billion settlement. Mr. Greenberg is the chairmanand CEO of C.V. Starr & Co.

The latest Starr suit named up to 100 AIG co-conspirators.

"This lawsuit exposes a string of illegal activities at AIGdesigned to eliminate the C.V. Starr agencies," said HowardOpinksy, a spokesperson for the C.V. Starr companies.

The lawsuit alleges that once AIG failed to make anything butwhat was termed a "fire-sale" offer to buy the entities, it set outto "steal the Starr agencies' expertise customer relationships,confidential information and, ultimately, their customers."

The lawsuit names 25-year AIG veteran Ralph Mucerino, presidentof AIG Global Energy. It claims he was talking out both sides ofhis mouth when he allegedly branded Starr Tech a "rogue agent" andyet at the same time said AIG continued to maintain relations withStarr Tech.

"The language is particularly noteworthy as AIG Global Energyhad no underwriters of its own in the United States who wrotebusiness other than those it poached from the Starr Agencies," thesuit alleged.

Defendant Warren Meigs served as vice president of Starr Tech inHartford until he quit in January to work for AIG.

The suit alleges that after already agreeing to work for AIG, hepresented employment contracts to Starr employees and "usedconfidential and proprietary Starr Tech information to assist AIGin making competing offers to lure Starr Tech's employees toAIG."

The suit also cites an alleged effort by Mr. Mucerino to lureLondon-based Starr Tech underwriter Frank Howell to join the newenergy operation which AIG was setting up. "AIG representativespresented Mr. Howell with an employment contract and told him tosign the contract," the suit states. "When he refused, they orderedhim to vacate the premises. The next day, Mr. Howell resigned fromStarr Tech to take the AIG position."

In addition, AIG was accused of several other instances of"poaching" Starr employees and barring access to offices that theyshared.

The agencies are seeking punitive damages and an orderprohibiting AIG from using proprietary information of the Starragencies.

AIG spokesperson Christian Murray said the company does notcomment on ongoing litigation.