Remember the groans and outrage from taxpayers when AIG handed out bonuses last year, after getting a $180 billion bailout in 2008?
Welcome to round two.
Bonuses are going out -- $100 million of them this week-- to the financial products division. That’s the Weston, Connecticut based unit that has been blamed for the business practices that sent the company’s finances reeling.
Kenneth Feinberg, the White House pay czar calls the bonuses "outrageous," but admits that the company is obligated by contracts it entered into years ago.
The bonuses are actually smaller than they could have been because Financial Products’ employees have agreed to take 10 to 20 percent less money than AIG promised in return for getting the money now, the Washington Post reports.
And about AIG giving some money back to the government? Feinberg says, AIG executives have pledged to repay the U.S. Treasury $39 million out of $45 million in previous bonuses.
The company has yet to repay all of the $180 billion the government handed over to rescue AIG from financial disaster. Feinberg told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Wednesday that he is using whatever leverage he has to get that money returned to the taxpayers.
