March 27 (Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc., the world's largest insurer by assets, sued the company's former chief executive officer, Maurice ``Hank'' Greenberg, claiming he ``misappropriated'' AIG shares worth $20 billion.
AIG said Greenberg and six other former executives, including ex-Chief Financial Officer Howard Smith, took over company stock held by an AIG affiliate, Starr International Co., or SICO, in 2005. The defendants seized control of the board of Starr, AIG's largest shareholder, and converted the firm into a private investment vehicle for their benefit, AIG alleged.
``Greenberg engineered a coup d'etat to usurp full control of SICO's board of directors,'' AIG said in a complaint filed yesterday in New York state court in Manhattan.
AIG's filing escalates the legal conflict between Greenberg and the company he led for 38 years. Greenberg was forced to retire from AIG in March 2005, two months before then-New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued Greenberg, accusing him of ordering improper transactions to hide losses and inflate reserves.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aIYY3JdfXsTM&refer=homeSo, Spitzer was right. Greenberg is a crook.