A $115 million settlement between American International Group Inc. shareholders and former executives including Maurice "Hank" Greenberg was approved by a judge in New York, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts granted final approval to the agreement in order to resolve claims by AIG shareholders against Greenberg, former Chief Financial Officer Howard Smith, former Vice President of Reinsurance Christian Milton, former Comptroller Michael Catelli and Greenberg companies C.V. Starr and Starr International Co. The plaintiffs, led by a group of Ohio public pensions, sued in 2004 and 2005, claiming that the Starr defendants misstated their involvement in alleged market-division and bid-rigging schemes and also misled investors about an alleged accounting fraud at AIG that resulted in the company's restating $3.9 billion of earnings. A later restatement reduced the amount to $3.4 billion.
