(Bloomberg) – New York's highest court again rejected a bid by former American International Group Inc. Chairman Maurice "Hank" Greenberg to dismiss the state's decade-old fraud suit against him, clearing a path for a trial.

Greenberg, 91, stepped down as chief executive officer of AIG in March 2005 after building it into the world's largest insurer over four decades. Shortly thereafter, company officials said one of its transactions was improper, restated its earnings by $3.4 billion and paid $1.6 billion to settle claims by regulators.

Greenberg and former AIG Chief Financial Officer Howard Smith were sued the next month by then Attorney General Eliot Spitzer under the state's Martin Act, an almost century-old law that gives prosecutors the power to probe investment frauds, Ponzi schemes and other forms of white-collar crime.

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