As the board of the American International Group weighs whether to join a shareholder lawsuit against the United States government, several lawmakers have a simple message for the bailed-out insurer: Don't do it, the New York Times DealBook blog reported yesterday. With AIG having fully repaid its $182 billion bailout only weeks ago, the prospect of the company trying to clawback some of the $22 billion in profit that its rescue generated for shareholders does not sit right with several members of Congress. In a letter to AIG's chairman, Robert S. Miller, three Democratic lawmakers sternly urged the company to avoid "rubbing salt in the wounds" of taxpayers still furious about needing to bail out a public company. "AIG became the poster company for Wall Street greed, fiscal mismanagement, and executive bonuses - the taxpayer and economy be damned," Reps. Peter Welch (Vt.), Michael Capuano (Mass.) and Luis V. Gutierrez (Ill.) wrote in the letter.
