Greenberg's Pride Takes A Hit with SEC Settlement

I never expected Maurice Greenberg to give an inch when it came time to battle charges involving accounting fraud while he was heading up AIG. Yet not only did Hank settle with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he ended up having to do a little damage control after the SEC objected to his rhetorical shrug of the shoulders in characterizing the meaning of the deal to him personally.

In case you hadn’t heard, Mr. G paid $15 million to settle charges stemming from the misuse of finite reinsurance at AIG to artificially boost the company’s balance sheet–and, most likely, its stock price at the time.

That’s the scandal that forced Hank from his iconic post as chair and CEO at American International Group, and which eventually resulted in the criminal conviction of four General Reinsurance officials–including former CEO Ron Ferguson and former CFO Elizabeth Monrad–as well as the former head of reinsurance at AIG, Christian Milton.