Action on a prosecutor's request to block the release of a report detailing individuals involved in improper accounting activities by American International Group has been delayed until next Monday.
No additional information from the court was available concerning the delay in yesterday's proceedings, which were scheduled before Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Ramos in Manhattan.
The judge had been expected to rule on a request by the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which is seeking to block release of an internal AIG report which the company turned over to New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
Mr. Spitzer received the report before he brought a civil fraud action against former AIG Chief Executive Maurice R. Greenberg, former Chief Financial Officer Howard Smith and the company. The federal authorities contend release of the report would hinder their prosecutorial efforts.
In previous court action Mr. Greenberg's attorneys suggested the company arranged with Mr. Spitzer to dump the blame on him and the report was a blueprint for his lawsuit.
AIG is no longer a defendant, having reached a $1.64 billion multistate settlement with Mr. Spitzer's office.
Mr. Greenberg is accused of accounting fraud in relation to finite risk reinsurance products. He has vigorously denied any impropriety and suggested through his attorneys that Mr. Spitzer wanted a high profile target to help his run for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
In Alexandria, Va., yesterday the U.S. attorney's office had no comment. That office has an ongoing criminal case against a former AIG reinsurance executive, Christian Milton, and three former executives from Berkshire Hathaway's General Reinsurance Corp.
The four have been accused of an accounting fraud for participation in a maneuver that allegedly improperly described a loan as a finite reinsurance program in order to improve AIG's financial picture with an inflated description of reserves against losses.
Two executives–Richard Napier, formerly with Gen Re, and John Houldsworth, formerly with Gen Re's Cologne Reinsurance Co. in Dublin–have pled guilty in the case and are expected to cooperate with federal authorities. In entering their pleas both identified Mr. Greenberg as the main impetus behind the alleged phony reinsurance transaction.
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