AIG, Keeping the Lawyers in Business

It's hard enough that taxpayers have to sit with the fact that one company, AIG, is a recipient of $180 billion of their money, and that's probably not the end of it. Perhaps a few will feel solace in the fact that AIG's continued existence is keeping food on the tables at more than a few lawyers' homes.

AIG rankled the markets today with its stunning $62 billion fourth-quarter loss, the greatest in history. The government stirred the pot by announcing it would funnel another $30 billion into the insurance giant, on top of the $150 billion it's already committed.

Then came the first of bits of twisted legal news pertaining to the company. AIG sued the IRS on Friday for $306 million in disputed taxes. Considering the U.S. government is effectively the owner of AIG now, it's almost comical to imagine those court proceedings.

But this bit of news was almost equally funny-if-it-wasn't-so-sad: the man who was responsible for much of AIG's growth, Hank Greenberg, is suing the company for securities fraud, according to Bloomberg. Evidently Greenberg believes that company officials misrepresented its financial state and caused him to overpay for his shares.

This news came just hours after AIG's current CEO, Edward Liddy, told CNBC that he blamed much of the current state of affairs on Greenberg.

And you wonder where your taxes go.

by Megan Barnett