Greenberg fails in latest attempt to sue federal government over AIG bailout

Hank Greenberg, the former chairman of American International Group (AIG) now the chairman and CEO of the Starr International, has failed in a bid to rekindle a long-standing lawsuit in which he is arguing that the federal government illegally bailed out AIG during the 2008 financial crisis at the expense of shareholders.

The US Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal he led, leaving intact a 2017 ruling by the a federal appeals court in Washington that only AIG has the right to sue on this basis. AIG, however, has elected not to sue.

Greenberg led AIG for nearly 40 years before the company hit difficulties and he was ousted in 2005. The US government stepped in to rescue the company from bankruptcy in 2008 eventually taking a 79.9 percent stake in the company.

David Boies, Starr’s attorney, said in a statement: “Starr established that the disproportionate and unfair treatment of AIG’s shareholders in 2008 was not authorized by the applicable statutes and that the government had exceeded its authority by taking control of AIG and using it to bail out other financial institutions, which were found to have engaged in more risky practices.”

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