American International Group president and CEO Robert Benmoscheis under heavy fire from a senior Maryland Democratic congressmanafter comparing the intense criticism of bonus payments madein 2009 to AIG Financial Products executives to the lynching ofblacks during the civil rights battles of several decades ago.

Benmosche has an apology for the remarks: “It was a poorchoice of words. I never meant to offend anyone by it,”Benmosche said through a spokesman in response to a call for hisresignation by Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, ranking member of the HouseCommittee on Oversight and Government Reform.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal markingthe 5-year anniversary of the government bailout of AIG,Benmosche strongly criticized the intense public response to thedisclosure that the government had approved the payout of $165million in contractual retention payments to AIGFPofficials.

Benmosche said the uproar “was intended to stir public anger, toget everybody out there with their pitch forks and their hangmannooses, and all that – sort of like what we did in the Deep South[decades ago]. And I think it was just as bad and just aswrong.”

Cummings, who lead the congressional probe into the payments,said in a statement, “As the leading critic of AIG's lavishspending before and after its taxpayer funded bailout—and as theson of sharecroppers who actually experienced lynchings in theircommunities—I find it unbelievably appalling that Mr. Benmoscheequates the violent repression of the African American people withcongressional efforts to prevent the waste of taxpayerdollars.”

“If these statements are true, I believe he has demonstrated afundamental inability to lead this modern global company in aresponsible manner—a company that exists today only because it wasrescued by the American taxpayers—and that he should resign hisposition as CEO immediately,” Cummings added.

Benmosche told the Wall Street Journal there were“less than ten” AIG employees who were responsible for the badtrades that led to huge losses and a federal rescue of the companyin 2008. Most of the employees who were receiving bonuses wouldhave left the company had the bonuses been slashed, he said.

“We wouldn't be here today had they not stayed and accepted …dramatically reduced pay,” he said in the interview. “They reallycontributed an enormous amount [to AIG's survival] and proved tothe world they are good people. It is a shame we put them throughthat.”

To prevent its collapse, AIG ultimately received approximately$182 billion in aid from the government, but paid it back throughprofits and sales of securities. The government sold the last partof its stake in AIG at the end of 2012.

Criticism arose over payment of $165 million in bonuses inthe spring of 2009 to AIGFP employees, based in London. Most of theproblems at AIG stemmed from the unit's purchases of speculativemortgage-backed securities collateralized by the reserves of AIG'slife subsidiaries, and through sale of credit default swaps thatguaranteed, at its peak, $2.77 billion worth of securities backedby mortgages of various grades acquired by various banks and otherinstitutions.

AIG's need to provide collateral on the CDS to thecounterparties was what triggered the immediate need for a federalbailout.

A newly-elected President Barack Obama asked Treasury SecretaryTimothy Geithner to stop AIG from paying the bonuses tofinancial products unit employees, but the company's managementsaid it was “contractually obligated” to pay the previouslynegotiated bonuses.

The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset ReliefProgram (SIGTARP) has heaped strong and continuing criticism of thebonuses on the government as well as AIG since they came tolight.