(Warren) Buffett to take stand against five insurance execs ($500 million in phony transactions)

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Dow Jones/AP

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1208&u_sid=10201103

Published Tuesday | December 4, 2007

NEW YORK (Dow Jones/AP) - Federal prosecutors intend to call billionaire investor Warren Buffett to testify against five former senior insurance executives charged with helping the American International Group to manipulate its financial statements through $500 million in phony transactions, according to court documents.

The former executives — four from the General Reinsurance Corporation, a unit of Berkshire Hathaway, and one from AIG — were indicted by a federal grand jury in 2006 on charges of fraud, conspiracy and lying to the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with what the government calls a scheme to inflate AIG's reserves, according to a report first published in the New York Times.

Buffett has not been charged and said he did not know the deals were improper.

The defendants from Gen Re are Ronald E. Ferguson, the former chief executive; Elizabeth A. Monrad, the former chief financial officer; Robert D. Graham, the former assistant general counsel; and Christopher P. Garand, a senior vice president who was chief underwriter. The AIG defendant is Christopher M. Milton, who oversaw the company's reinsurance activities.

Read more: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1208&u_sid=10201103