Participants in the American International Group employeesavings plan have filed a prospective class-action suit against theinsurer, alleging that illegal acts by management hurt theirinvestment.

The suit on behalf of beneficiaries of the AIG 401(k) savingsplan was announced by the Coral Springs, Fla.-based law firm MagerWhite & Goldstein LLP.

According to a complaint filed in New York's U.S. District Courtin Manhattan, AIG violated the Employee Retirement Income SecurityAct (ERISA), decreasing the value of AIG stock held by current andpast employees of AIG through the plan. AIG declined to comment onthe litigation.

The suit alleges that AIG's financial officers breached theirfiduciary responsibilities by leading participants to invest in AIGstock between Nov. 1, 1998, and the present, while failing todisclose improper business practices. The suit also charges thatAIG officers disseminated false and misleading financial statementsto investors.

Specifically, the lawsuit stated that since February 2005, AIGhas admitted to accounting errors in several areas of AIG'soperations that falsely gave the appearance of financialgrowth.

As a result, AIG has delayed issuance of its 2004 annual report.AIG also has admitted that it anticipates cutting its net worth byover $2 billion and restating its financial results for the period2000 through 2004, the lawsuit noted.

AIG has been the target of a number of class-action lawsuits inrecent months. Late last year, two law firms–Wolf Haldenstein AdlerFreeman & Herz LLP, and Stull, Stull & Brody–separatelyfiled class actions against the insurance giant on behalf ofshareholders.

In February, Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro retained two lawfirms–Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP, and Goodkind Labaton Rudoff& Sucharow LLP–to assist him in representing Ohio's retirementsystems as lead plaintiff in a class action against AIG.

In related news, a spokesperson for Maurice Greenberg, theousted chairman and chief executive of AIG, said movers hadfinished retrieving a number of personal effects the company hadbeen keeping from him. “We received most of Mr. Greenberg'sbelongings. We are still awaiting his personal art collection,”said his representative, Howard Opinsky.

The art in question involves items owned by CV Starr, aninsurance underwriter, and Starr International Company–two firmswith links to AIG that are controlled by Mr. Greenberg. Mr. Opinskysaid the disputed material at AIG's Pine Street headquarters in NewYork includes an oil painting by the impressionist master VincentVan Gogh.

Mr. Greenberg had threatened to sue the company he headed formore than three decades. AIG had been keeping the materials afterMr. Greenberg left his post amid a variety of investigations intocompany activity by various agencies.

Callout:

The suit alleges that AIG's financial officers breached theirfiduciary responsibilities by leading participants to invest in AIGstock