Obama Urges All Legal Means to Stop AIG Bonuses

March 16, 2009

President Barack Obama told Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to take all legal measures to block hefty bonuses awarded to employees of AIG , the insurance company that received up to $180 billion in bailout money, a White House adviser said Monday.

“The president told Secretary Geithner … to take every legal means that he has to push back against this, to figure out who put this in the contracts and when, and to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Austan Goolsbee, a member of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, told Reuters Financial Television.

“Obviously we’re not going to break the law, but there are a number of legal means that we have to push back, and the president instructed Secretary Geithner to do so,” he said. (Reporting by Emily Kaiser; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Topics AIG

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Latest Comments

  • March 18, 2009 at 8:53 am
    Bubba says:
    According to a report I heard this morning, Chris Dodd, who put the amendment into the bailout bill, and Obama were two of the biggest recipients of AIG campaign contributions... read more
  • March 17, 2009 at 2:46 am
    SFOInsuranceLady says:
    My sentiments exactly.....but I still don't get it.....how could something like this happen in this day & age? As you stated, I think it's one of two things. #1. Repayment of ... read more
  • March 17, 2009 at 2:31 am
    Bubba says:
    It's my understanding that the bonuses are an incentive bonus. That is, they agreed to a lesser weekly salary in exchange for a bonus at the end of the year. It's also my un... read more

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