A.I.G. Under Fire Again for Lavish Spending

As American International Group was reaching for more federal bailout money, the giant insurer was paying out big bucks for yet another conference at a luxury resort, the Arizona Republic newspaper is reporting.

The $343,000 conference, held at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort in Phoenix last week, was for some 150 financial planners who sell the insurer's products. The gathering follows the much-publicized $500,000 California resort meeting on the heels of October's $85 billion federal rescue of AIG -- an amount that was increased yesterday and now tops $150 million of taxpayer money.

A.I.G. quickly tried to minimize the sting, with a spokesman noting that sponsors paid some 93 percent of the cost for the gathering. But that wasn't likely to quell complaints such as that of Elijah Cummings, the Maryland Democrat who detailed the expenditures the insurer ran up at the St. Regis Monarch Beach in California.

"A.I.G. is coming to the government claiming to be in critical condition and asking to be placed under intensive care, but they are still going out and partying and acting as health as ever," Cummings said in a statement.

He noted that it was "even harder to sympathize" when the company's executives "continue to wade by luxury pools" while taxpayers are hard at work.

A.I.G., in a statement from Larry Roth, chief executive of A.I.G. Advisor Group, defended hosting the hosting the sales training meeting for the financial planners, who are independent contractors, because they generate revenues for the insurer.

Roth said A.I.G. paid only $23,000 of the total bill because product sponsors paid for the "vast majority of the conference costs. Financial planners paid their registration fees and their travel, he said, so that "has resulted in minimal cost to A.I.G."

Although he didn't say so, the gathering also appeared to be designed to generate minimal notice, according to a local Phoenix television station which sent a reporter with a hidden camera to the meeting.

According to KNXV-TV, there were no A.I.G. signs or logos visible -- a point A.I.G. doesn't dispute. It says it was trying to cut down conference costs and lower the company's profile.

by Elizabeth Olson