Joe Cassano: The Man Who Brought Down AIG?
October 7, 2008; 2:53 PM ET
WaPo
Moments ago, members of the House oversight committee concluded their hammering of the two most recent AIG chief executives. Topic: Joe Cassano, the man who some credit with bringing down the insurance giant.
Cassano was president of AIG's financial products division, which trafficked in the credit-default swaps, or CDS, which we learned earlier proved so dangerous.
Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) angrily recited the tale of Cassano's tape: He earned $280 million in cash -- more than AIG chief executives -- and for every dollar his financial products unit made, 30 cents came back to Cassano and other top execs.
After the unit lost $11 billion, Cassano was fired Feb. 29 of this year, Braley pointed out, and got to keep $34 million in bonuses and was kept on as an AIG consultant at a salary of $1 million per month.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn) also thinks a clawback provision is a good idea because otherwise, as Jake Tapper put it, the MOTU will simply "take their $500 million to their home in the Hamptons."
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1 comment:
I agree - Sarbanes Oxley works because the top CEOs and Boards know that they are libel bigtime if quarterly numbers are wrong. This would put a stop to the las vegas style Financial gambling at financial institutions.
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