(Bloomberg) -- For Hank Greenberg, vindication is notenough.

Despite a victory over the federal government Monday in asix-year fight over the bailout of American International GroupInc., his Starr International Co. announced Tuesday that it willappeal the verdict because it wasn’t awarded any money as part ofthe judgment. The company said it disagreed with the court’sconclusion that there’s no remedy for the government’s illegalconduct.

The terms of an $85 billion rescue loan given to the company inthe midst of the 2008 financial crisis were illegal, a federaljudge in Washington ruled Monday, siding with Starr in a lawsuit onbehalf of AIGshareholders. But investors would have been worseoff if the government did nothing, the judge found, and awarded nota penny, though Starr sought as much as $40 billion.

Starr said in a statement Tuesday it will appeal those findings,arguing the government shouldn’t be allowed to “keep billions ofdollars of citizens’ money in its pocket.”

The Justice Department has not said whether it will appeal thedecision as well.

“They weren’t suing for a moral victory,” Dennis Kelleher, headof the financial advocacy group Better Markets, said Monday ofStarr and Greenberg. “They were suing for cold hard cash.”

Jon Diat, a spokesman for New York-based AIG, declined tocomment on Starr’s statement.

2011 Suit

Starr sued the U.S. in November 2011, claiming the governmentbroke the law by insisting on 80 percent of AIG stock andimposing a 12 percent interest rate on the loan. Wheeler agreed,saying that while the Fed had authority to make an emergency loanto AIG, it didn’t have the authority to take shares inexchange for it.

The government countered the demands were justified since theloan was high-risk. As evidence, government lawyers cited similarterms in a private rescue that fell through over doubts about AIG’sability to repay.

Despite the lack of a damages award, U.S. Court of Claims JudgeThomas Wheeler’s ruling Monday was seen as a dramatic rebuke of thegovernment’s rescue plan that could limit future actions in acrisis.

The case is Starr International Co. v. U.S., 11-cv-00779, U.S.Court of Federal Claims (Washington).

--With assistance from Betty Liu and Sonali Basak in NewYork.

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