U.S. lawyers on Friday urged an appeals court to bless the federal government’s $85 billion bailout of American International Group Inc. At the same time, attorneys for Maurice "Hank" Greenberg are asking the same court to rule that he and other AIG investors deserve billions of dollars because terms of the 2008 rescue made it illegal.
A trial judge ruled last year that while the U.S. acted improperly and treated AIG more harshly than other firms in peril during the financial crisis, its investors were owed nothing because government inaction would have spelled doom for the insurer. Both asked the Washington-based U.S. Court Appeals for the Federal Circuit to reverse the parts of the case they lost.
The dispute centers on the government’s actions in September 2008, when AIG said it needed an infusion of cash to avoid bankruptcy. The U.S. said it stepped in with an $85 billion loan after private bankers determined it was too risky to lend the insurer money. The loan came with the same provisions that the bankers had rejected as insufficient protection -- an 80 percent stake in the company and a 12 percent interest rate.
Representing Greenberg’s Starr International Co. before the three-judge panel, attorney David Boies said the U.S. had “wanted to punish” AIG’s shareholders.
“If the government had wanted to punish AIG,” Justice Department lawyer Mark Stern said minutes later, “all it needed to do was nothing. That would have been it,” for the company.
Future Rescues
The appellate ruling, which likely won’t come for months, could influence how the U.S. handles future rescues.
It “will set some precedent that will help shape the response the next time there’s a crisis,” said Cliff Rossi, a finance professor at the University of Maryland and a risk-management specialist. "We continue, to this day, to allow institutions that are so large and complex to take risk because there’s a fighting chance they’ll be bailed out again.”
Federal Circuit Chief Judge Sharon Prost, a 2001 nominee of Republican President George W. Bush, presided over the hour-long hearing. Flanking her were two Obama appointees Judges Jimmie Reyna and Evan Wallach, both of whom joined the bench in 2011.
Onerous Demands