Remember the AIG firestorm?
The company's Financial Products division, based in Weston, Conn., was to blame for the business practices that sent the company south. The feds stepped in with a $180 billion bailout. And then we figured out that the company had to give out $450 million in bonus payments to those same employees who may have caused the mess?
Now, hoping to stem any further public outrage, the company is asking the Obama administration (basically, its financial consigliere) for permission to go ahead and make those bonus payments.
The retention incentives, as the company puts it, are an important factor in keeping people on-board who could most effectively unwind the tangled web of the Financial Products division.
This week, 40 AIG executives, many in Connecticut, are due more than $2 million in bonuses.
AIG isn't required to get the government's permission, since the argument could be made that they're legally required to honor their contracts. But the government's seal of approval wouldn't hurt at all.
