Cuomo, Others Defend Former AIG Chairman
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Maurice “Hank” Greenberg is rallying support from former New York Governor Mario Cuomo and investment bankers as New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer makes new claims that Mr. Greenberg abused his power as head of American International Group.
Mr. Cuomo, 73, is helping start a public relations campaign on Mr. Greenberg’s behalf, and J. Christopher Flowers, 48, a former Goldman Sachs Group partner who now runs his own buyout firm, agreed to join the board of Mr. Greenberg’s investment firm.
“The deals that Greenberg is trying to engineer are partly to protect his legacy,” Phillip Phan, a finance professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who wrote “Taking Back the Boardroom,” said. “He’s not ready to give up the empire he’s built.”
Mr. Greenberg, 80, ran the world’s largest insurer for almost 40 years before he was ousted in March amid investigations of accounting irregularities. AIG’s former chairman and chief executive officer is now seeking to restore his reputation after Mr. Spitzer accused him of accounting fraud in a civil lawsuit in May.
Mr. Spitzer then said on December 14 that Mr. Greenberg misused his authority 35 years ago, cheating a charity started by AIG’s founder out of assets that would now be worth $6 billion. Mr. Greenberg told the Reuters news service on December 15 that Mr. Spitzer’s “agenda is to demonize me.”
Mr. Cuomo has approached Howard Rubenstein, spokesman for notables including New York Yankee’s owner George Steinbrenner, about a campaign for his friend.