TARP inspector general says Bush administration specifically considered and approved AIG bonuses. [View All]

[kpete]

Source: Think Progress

TARP inspector general says Bush administration specifically considered and approved AIG bonuses.

Bloomberg News reports that Neil Barofsky, inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), told the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee today that the Bush administration “specifically contemplated” paying bonuses to AIG employees in its November agreement to provide federal bailout funds to the failing insurance giant:

The TARP contract between AIG and Treasury “specifically contemplated the payment of bonuses and retention payments to AIG employees, including AIG’s senior partners,” Barofsky said.

Yesterday, AIG CEO Edward Liddy testified that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke approved these bonuses, saying that Federal Reserve representatives attend AIG’s “various meetings on strategy and they have the ability to weigh in — either yea or nay — on anything that we decide.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=aBwUb_K6GQ7s

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/19/bush-approved-aig-bonuses/