American International Group, Inc. (AIG) former chief executive officer Maurice "Hank" Greenberg said he was not responsible for the company's problems since they occurred after he left, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday citing an interview with him.
Greenberg, 83, who resigned from the post of chief executive officer in 2005 following an accounting scandal, is scheduled to appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as the Congress is pressing for answers on what went wrong at the company and what to do next, WSJ said. He also is likely to be asked about the history of the financial products unit.
The report also said that he plans to argue for cutting down the government's stake in AIG to 15% from the current nearly 80% to attract private investors, and pressuring trading partners who got huge payments as a result of the insurer's bailout to bring some of that money back into the company as an investment.
Greenberg, who built the small insurer into a world-wide conglomerate during his 38-year reign as Chief Executive, reportedly has asked in the interview, "How can I be responsible for something that occurred when I'm not there?" It was the financial products unit, created by Greenberg as part of the expansion drive, nearly sank the financial giant after he left the firm.
Meanwhile, AIG is reported to have said that when Greenberg left in March 2005, the unit had already sold about half of the swaps that caused the biggest problems, adding that the company's exposure under the contracts wasn't hedged.
Greenberg is still a major shareholder in AIG, even though the value of his holdings has plunged since the start of 2008. Greenberg also controls a company that is AIG's largest private shareholder.
AIG closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $1.07, up $0.07, on a volume of 84 million shares. In the past 52 weeks, shares have been trading in a broad range of $0.33 -$49.50.
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