By Hugh Son
Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc., the insurer whose bonuses and perks are under fire from U.S. lawmakers, offered cash awards to another 38 executives in a retention program with payments of as much as $4 million.
The incentives range from $92,500 to $4 million for employees earning salaries between $160,000 and $1 million, Chief Executive Officer Edward Liddy said in a letter dated Dec. 5 to Representative Elijah Cummings. The New York-based insurer had previously disclosed that 130 managers would get the awards and that one executive would get $3 million.
"I remain concerned, as do many American taxpayers, that these retention payments are simply bonuses by another name," Cummings said in letter responding to Liddy.
AIG, which received a U.S. rescue package of more than $152 billion, has been criticized for saying it will eliminate bonuses for senior executives while still planning to hand out "cash awards" that double or triple the salaries of some managers. The payments are designed to keep top employees at AIG while Liddy seeks to sell units and pay back the federal government, which owns 79.9 percent of AIG.
"We are indeed fortunate to have benefited from the assistance extended to us by the U.S. government and we are grateful for the support of American taxpayers," Liddy wrote. "We would be doing a disservice to the taxpayer -- and would place AIG's asset divestiture plan at risk -- if we did not act decisively to ensure that our key employees remain."
Congressman Wants Answers
Cummings, a Maryland Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asked AIG to disclose how much each of the 168 recipients made in salary, bonuses and other kinds of pay. In a letter dated today, Cummings also asked for an estimate of what AIG would have spent on employee compensation in 2008 had the firm not sought U.S. help, compared with what it expected to spend.
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