Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will have to give testimony in a lawsuit against the U.S. brought by Maurice “Hank” Greenberg over the government’s bailout of American International Group Inc., Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Greenberg’s Starr International Co. sued the U.S. for $25 billion in 2011, claiming the assumption of 80 percent of AIG’s stock by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in September 2008 was an unconstitutional seizure of property that violated shareholders’ rights to due process and equal protection of the law. Switzerland-based Starr contended Bernanke’s role in the transaction made his testimony critical. “The court is persuaded that Mr. Bernanke is a key witness in this case and that his testimony will be highly relevant to the issues presented,” Judge Thomas Wheeler of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims wrote in the ruling yesterday. “Because of Mr. Bernanke’s personal involvement in the decision-making process to bail out AIG, it is improbable that the plaintiff would be able to obtain the same testimony or evidence from other persons or sources.” Judge Wheeler, who said he will attend the deposition to provide judicial oversight, said obtaining testimony from high-level U.S. officials has been a “relatively routine practice” in claims court when the individual has personal knowledge of relevant information.
