AIG == ROBBERY UNDER LAW

That's the title of a very well written book by Evelyn Waugh about the endemic corruption in Mexican society and I think it applies to our financial overlords, the MOTU. We know that the bonus contracts were made at a time when everyone knew the CDS market was going Deep South, so these are really nothing more than theft disguised as legal contracts. We also know from the WaPo that the senior executives who were responsible for the mess at AIG are no longer with the firm, so the retention argument fails for them. Now we find that at least 11 people who are supposed to get these bonuses no longer work for AIG:

NY atty gen says 73 AIG execs got $1M bonuses
Mar 17 01:05 PM US/Eastern
By MICHAEL VIRTANEN
Associated Press Writer

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Troubled insurance giant American International Group paid bonuses of $1 million or more to 73 employees, including 11 who no longer work for the company, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.

Cuomo subpoenaed information from AIG on Monday to determine whether the payments made over the past weekend constitute fraud under state law. He says contracts written in March 2008 guaranteed employees 100 percent of their 2007 pay for 2008, regardless of their performance.

UPDATE VIA ATRIOS:

The NYT has some more information about this grand corporate theft:

Cuomo Details Million-Dollar Bonuses at A.I.G.
By LOUISE STORY
Published: March 17, 2009
NY Times

“A.I.G. made more than 73 millionaires in the unit which lost so much money that it brought the firm to its knees, forcing a taxpayer bailout,” Mr. Cuomo wrote in the letter.

The highest bonus was $6.4 million, and six other employees received more than $4 million, according to Mr. Cuomo. Fifteen other people received bonuses of more than $2 million, and 51 people received bonuses of $1 million to $2 million, Mr. Cuomo said. Eleven of those who received “retention” bonuses of $1 million or more are no longer working at A.I.G., including one who received $4.6 million, he said.