Report: Grasso pressured floor trader

[dArKeR]

Ousted New York Stock Exchange Chairman Dick Grasso pressured a floor-trading firm to buy more shares in American International Group Inc. after the insurer’s chairman complained to him, according to a newspaper report.

GRASSO MADE the suggestion to the firm after receiving written complaints from AIG Chairman Maurice Greenberg, a previous NYSE director, The Wall Street Journal reported in Friday editions, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

Greenberg was a member of the NYSE’s compensation committee that determined Grasso’s $187.5 million pay package. Outrage over the size of the compensation led to resignation two weeks ago.
Greenberg complained in an Oct. 23, 2002 letter to Grasso about Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Spear, Leeds & Kellogg unit, the “specialist” assigned to facilitate trading in AIG, the Journal said.

On multiple occasions following Greenberg’s complaints, Grasso went to the trading floor and suggested that Spear increase its buying of AIG shares, the Journal said.

http://msnbc.com/news/975376.asp?0cv=CB10

Is anyone else ashamed of our county under Bush?

[Octafish]

1. Grasso tied to AIG tied to BCCI tied to BFEE! Holy Smokes!

An article about the "Un-American Insurance Group," from the Catbird Seat (very slow download, beware, but well-worth the wait:)

September 12, 2003

AIG PAYS $10 MILLION FOR ALLEGED FRAUD

'Insurance policy' helped second company falsify earnings report

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - American International Group, one of the biggest U.S. insurance companies, yesterday agreed to pay a $10 million fine to settle federal regulators' allegations that it fraudulently helped another company falsify its earnings report and hide losses.

The insurer, known as AIG, also failed to provide documents subpoenaed during the government's investigation of the alleged fraud involving financial reports by cellular-phone distributor Brightpoint Inc., the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

AIG, of New York, neither admitted nor denied the SEC's allegations in its settlement, in which it also is forfeiting a $100,000 fee paid by Brightpoint.

SNIP...

The SEC alleged that AIG issued a "non-traditional" insurance policy to Brightpoint to help the company hide $11.9 million in losses in 1998. The insurance policy was said to be for the company to smooth out volatility in earnings.

AIG agreed to make it appear that Brightpoint was paying premiums in return for AIG assuming risk, but Brightpoint actually was just depositing cash with AIG that it later refunded to Brightpoint, the SEC said.

CONTINUED...

http://www.the-catbird-seat.net/AIG.htm

These are some serious crooks, doing business as the BFEE, busting out corporate coffers, shaking down shareholders, and looting the US Treasury with equal aplomb. And another article, from further down the Catbird Seat site:

March 17, 1997

THE BARBADOS CONNECTION -- CORAL REINSURANCE

The Washington Weekly

The link between the Arkansas Development Finance Authority (ADFA) and AIG goes beyond $5 million. An AIG affiliate has managed over one billion dollars worth of ADFA's bonds, according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. An allegation that ADFA launders money for U.S. intelligence has repeatedly surfaced but without any direct documentary evidence to date....

Apart from ADFA, where does AIG get its money to fund, among other things, lobbying on behalf of the Chinese government? The answer is not clear, though some indications are available. (1) In 1995, AIG became the first company to be licensed to sell insurance in China. (2) AIG is a client of Kissinger & Associates.

It was Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State, who advised against harsh sanctions after the Tienanmen Square massacre. . . . (3) AIG has also been the focus of SEC and BCCI investigator, Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau's attention . . . to explore its ties to the BCCI. (4) And finally, AIG is headed by Maurice Greenberg, one-time chairman of the NY Federal Reserve Bank, and in 1995 a candidate to head the CIA.

Greenberg is chairman of the US-China Business Council and lobbied hard (and successfully) for the Clinton administration to sever the link between China's human rights record and renewal of China's Most-Favored-Nation trade status.~ ~ ~