Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro has sued former American International Group boss Maurice Greenberg and his wife, Corinne, to rescind the transfer of millions of Mr. Greenberg's AIG shares to his spouse just days before he stepped down as the carrier's chief executive.

The stock transfer, which was described as Mr. Greenberg's "gift" to his wife, consisted of 41 million shares of AIG common stock, worth more than $2.6 billion. The transaction took place just two days before Mr. Greenberg relinquished his role as AIG's chief executive in March in the face of regulatory probes into alleged accounting irregularities.

The demand by Mr. Petro is related to the class-action suit which the attorney general is already prosecuting on behalf of the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, and the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund and AIG investors. It was filed in the U.S. Federal Court for the Southern District of New York, in New York City.