Now that AIG has been nationalized, some folks are wondering just how their tax dollars are being spent. If you’re among them, we have some bad news for you from ABC. They are reporting that papers uncovered by congressional investigators show that “less than a week after the federal government committed $85 billion to bail out AIG, executives of the giant AIG insurance company headed for a week-long retreat at a luxury resort and spa, the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, California.” Ouch.
ABC says that the documents show that the company, yes the company, paid more than $400,000 for a week long retreat at the resort. The bill included $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals and $23,000 in spa charges. 
“They’re getting their pedicures and their manicures and the American people are paying for that,” said Cong. Elijah Cummings (D-MD).
AIG’s former CEO told Congress today that AIG was a victim of a “crisis in confidence” and an “unprecedented global catastrophe,” but records show that there were serious concerns about the way the company was being managed.
In March, 2008, the Office of Thrift Supervision wrote AIG, “We are concerned that the corporate oversight of AIG Financial Products…lacks critical elements of independence, transparency, and granularity.”
Congressman Waxman also said that there was evidence that the former CEO changed the bonus schedule in order to insure that top executives would continue making multi-million dollar salaries, even as their company went broke.
“Mr. Sullivan and the other top executives should have had their bonuses slashed due to poor performance,” said Waxman.
Sullivan received a $15 million golden parachute payment when he was let go in June, says ABC.
After Bailout, AIG Execs Head to California Resort [ABC] (Thanks, Melanie !)
More From Consumerist
-
Fresh Off Paying Back Bailout Money, AIG Thinks About Suing U.S. Government
-
AIG Decides Not To Sue The Taxpayers That Bailed It Out
-
Lawmakers To AIG: Don’t Even Think About Joining $25 Billion Lawsuit Against Govt.
-
AIG CEO To College Grads: Take Whatever Job You Can Get
-
Bank Of America, Comcast Among Familiar Names In List Of Least Reputable Companies
Despicable.
When@Oranges w/ Cheese: When they are despicable, they sure do it in style!
There are no words to describe this.
@MaxSmart32:
Spectacular Rape of the American People?
@MaxSmart32: I can think of a few.
You know, ones such as “Criminal charges, please?”
@MaxSmart32:
How about a few four-letter words?
Or acronyms..such the ever popular “WTF”??
@MaxSmart32: I think the first post covers it pretty well.
Ca@MaxSmart32: How about, “Bailout revoked!”
@SF_iris: I’m with you on that, PLUS these execs should pay back the $440k with interest.
Sigh…. less than a week.
Who feels good about the $700 billion dollar bailout now?
@MercuryPDX: I didn’t feel good about it when the bailout happened in the first place. Bush will be ejected shortly; those who voted for this horror in Congress need to follow him out. Congress is equally culpable as these wretched CEOs since they didn’t do anything about Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, which caused this mess in the first place, and they can’t claim ignorance. There are absolutely no winners here; not the CEOs, not Congress, and certainly not the citizenry.
Speaking of the CEOs — is this the kind of ethics/behavior being taught at Wharton/Harvard Business School? Because it’s not just these guys; the executives at my company cry poverty while they go on golf outings on the company dime and drive company BMWs and Escalades with their mileage paid for.
@atypicalxian: Not taught outright, but definitely encouraged throughout. It’s a pervasive ethos, emphasizing all the benefits of short-sighted, solipsistic, over-confident asshattery.
And you are surprised by this?
I’m not and I’m sure no one else will be either.
The word of the day is: OVERSIGHT
This is why I love people who complain about the way “big government” wastes our money. Big business is pretty good at wasting cash, too.
@RandomHookup: This mess was largely caused by the government, underwriting mortgages by people who had no way of paying, in the name of “fairness”. The banks/mortgage companies just followed suit thinking the free money would keep flowing.
@atypicalxian: And what does that have to do with anything? I wasn’t talking about cause and effect.
Everyone claims that the private sector does things so much better, when they sure know how to waste money, too. I’d say it’s about a toss-up, but government waste has more visibility.
@atypicalxian: Bah, the CRA didn’t cover most of the big lenders, who weren’t normal “banks”. Like Countrywide.
@RandomHookup: True, but this a perfect storm of wasteful government spending AND corporate greed.
Now THIS is something conservatives and liberals can rally against. Each of their least biggest complaints!
@cjones27: “least biggest”? Who are you?
Meant to type “least favorite qualities.” Not that it’s much better, but still.
Burn these people at the stake. They do not deserve to continue living.
So who do we fire? Do we get to fire someone? I pay taxes and I want to see some heads roll.
Then they can go back to making me some damn money.
@shini:
Fire? No. These people need to go to prison. Do not pass “Go”, do not collect $200.
Unless by “fire” you meant “immolation”. That would be okay too.
@Red_Flag: Immolation? Sounds good to me – I’ll bring the marshmallows!
@Red_Flag: Prison, that’s getting off easy. I say “OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!”
@Red_Flag: OH! Quote of the DAY!!
@Red_Flag: Storm their houses with torches and pitchforks!
@Red_Flag: Immolation? Don’t mind if I do!
@shini:
It’d be better if it were out of a cannon!
Shouldn’t there be a clause in the contract with them that if they perform such a violation of SIMPLE ETHICS that the company should be deemed ineligible to receive any help at all?
@MacQix: Help? These guys should all be thrown in Jail.
@MacQix: Sorry. There should have been one, but you can be sure it was one of those “we didn’t think it would be needed” kind of things.
In any case, should I feel good or bad that I’ve been reassigned to the Europe facilities for my company? Will I be out of this mess now that I will be paid in Euro?
Time to clean the management house… Now. We have 80% ownership, so I say FIRE everyone who went.
Amazing how greedy, selfish, and stupid people can be.
@Ubermunch: I agree wholeheartedly. We’re the controlling interest, we say GTFO, bitches.
I feel they deserve Jail time for this. I dont mean fancy jail either. I mean Federal Prison. Perhaps if their was a real punishment for what they are doing they would stop once and for all.
My vote has been cast. Get it done Gov.
@parad0x360: Federal pound me in the ass prison
@parad0x360:
LOL… You can’t be serious? The best place for these guys is SOLITARY CONFINEMENT in an ANTARCTIC jail.
Federal Prison is actually a pretty fancy form of incarceration here in the states. The inmates there usually just go out and play golf all day on the 18 hole, and prolly have a better diet than most middle class families these days.
I propose that we make golden parachutes literal. From now on, fired executives of failing companies get hurled out of an airplane with a parachute made of gold.
@B: That just might be the best idea I’ve heard all day.
@B:
Lead.
It is cheaper and just as effective.
@Corporate-Shill: And you can PAINT it gold and let their children play with it.
I am more sickened by the fact that I am not at all surprised. We knew this would happen.
I concur with everyone else. The company may be too big to fail, but its people certainly aren’t too big to fire.
Why don’t we just bill it back to them? Does anybody have pictures of those who organized this little outing? Let’s out ‘em…
screw all you selfish rich bastards who dont care for anyone but yourself!
they should gather them all right in front of the their office building and get stoned by every tax payer!!! *just a rant*
and to you stupid, idiotic and outta touch govmnt, hope you’re happy….explain this to the tax payers!
@ceez: “they should gather them all right in front of the their office building and get stoned by every tax payer!!! *just a rant*”
I’m not sure the taxpayers funding enough weed for these guys would fly either.
Who wants to bet no one goes to jail?
@Scalvo2: Since Ken Lay never went to jail either, I think that’s a pretty safe bet.
Time to fake your own deaths and head to Argentine, AIG execs. It’s that or up against the wall, because I’m telling you the American taxpayer has farking HAD IT!
@oldheathen:
Have you had it enough to do the killing yourself? Do you think that enough people have had it enough to do the killing themselves to overwhelm the people who are paid to prevent people like these AIG execs getting killed?
Because that is what it takes. As long as there are enough people with enough force with enough of a stake in their survival to stop those who are out for blood, there won’t be blood.
@TechnoDestructo: This reads like a screen play. Although I do agree with you. I just don’t get why no one has snapped. I would say it’s just a matter of time but I think the sheer stun factor of it all rather outweighs the ability to really formulate a response to the amount of crap these people have gotten away with and will continue to do so.
I hope someone punches them too.
I’m not trying to vouch for their actions because I’m certain they are all self-serving egotists but you have to imagine a weeklong resort had to be planned further in advance than “less than a week”. Still a poor use of money but all companies waste money. Just saying.
@MoneyLint: Well, when you run your company into the ground, and taxpayers need to bail you out, you cancel that shit. Sure, you lose your deposit, but you don’t wrack up an additional $23k in Spa charges, and various other $100k of additional spending all on the tax-payer’s dime. If the bailout hadn’t occurred, they would have all been out of business, and the retreat would have surely been canceled. See where I’m going here?
We are not share holders, we do not get anything once the stock prices goes back up, except for the abstract social benefit of AIG’s continued existence, and we have no patience for their opulent, profligate spending, whether or not they consider that the status quo.
@ludwigk: Agreed. I wasn’t justifying their actions.
This is one of those lose/lose situations. They went and now look like a bunch of spineless crooks. If they cancelled the trip, I’m sure there would have been cast as spineless crooks for planning it in the first place, even if it was planned weeks or months before Lehman went under.
Looks like an EECB of epic proportions is in order.
Have we got some executive contact info for these guys?
@Phenostar: whoops, sorry! Great minds think alike!
@olivia2.0: It was a rare moment of lucidity for me. I’m not surprised it was overlooked.
I think everyone should get luxury spa vacations!
Consumerist engaging in class warfare. Read that on various right-wing blogs. Must be true.
Why would they be sent to jail for this? What purpose does that serve? For one, I’m sure this trip/retreat was likely booked well before they got their bailout. Even if it was booked after, the suggestion that they be sent to jail is simply absurd.
@Pylon83: PLEASE tell me you are kidding… You think these jackholes should get let off free? As the rest of us struggle to put gas in our tanks, and pay our bills? Seriously…
I’m at the point where I think hanging a few to encourage the others is a good idea.
Yeah, and it takes just under five minutes for the chair of the organizing committee to glance at the financial section of the newspaper, pick up the phone and CANCEL the week long resort.
Hope it was a nice week- nice enough to make up for the next twenty years behind bars. Enjoy fellas!
Fascism – Washington is in bed with the Corporations and stealing our money. Bedtime for Democracy.
Besides, this is stupid.
440K is ONLY .000005 percent of 85B. Swatting at flies. Wake up already!
I urge everyone to write the congressman and senator regarding this issue, as well as the Speaker of the House. Also, can we get some contact info for corporate AIG so I can email them and ask how their vacation was? Please Consumerist?
@olivia2.0:
Yes, because they are not busy enough dealing with the other problems that are currently going on. Why don’t we start sending emails about personal objections to a corporate retreat that was likely scheduled and paid for before the bailout even occurred. Brilliant idea! An even better one would be to mind your own business and not worry about what AIG did. And emailing AIG’s executives directly would be really classy.
@Pylon83: Um, but we own that shit. Let me repeat myself – We OWN that shit. We own 80% of AIG. It’s not THEIR business, its OUR business. At this point, they aren’t running their ship based upon their business acumen, they are there but by the grace of the American people who provided them the funding to stay in business.
Besides, if they have time for a week-long retreat, they’ve got time to spare to answer a few angry objections. I haven’t taken a week long vacation in 8 years.
@ludwigk:
What are they going to answer with? Yes, we took a corporate retreat that was scheduled before the bailout. Yeah, a lot of good that does you to get “answered”.
This trip had to have been paid for in advance long ago.
That said, it would have been far more appropriate to cancel the trip. get a partial refund if possible, and get to work.
I say we all tap into our Native American roots and take it all back…
I say we do a chargeback! Get our money back and make them pay for their own trips! Let’s fine them for every stupid mistake they’ve made. Not just AIG, ALL of them. Congress, all big business.. the whole lot of them! If we mess up our finances, we can’t just say, “give me more, I promise I’ll do it right next time”. How do they get away with it? The $15 MILLION dollar golden parachute? UHHHM WHY? Let’s cut the strings on that bad boy, take the money back. Only $685 million more to go!
Not defending these actions, but I suspect this vacation package was already scheduled (and paid for) well before Uncle’s bailout.
The smart employees (upper management invited to the retreat) will have stayed at home rather than going to the retreat.
I say keep the smart employees and fire the rest.
@Corporate-Shill: Wouldn’t it have been better to take a cancellation/penalty fee.
From the looks of things they’ve probably done these things in the past.Apparently ‘relaxing’ does NOT help them think,give them ethics & morals or make them give a crap.
I don’t like this company at all. A monstrosity in need of a little shortening. It is important to understand that the Insurance branch of AIG is separate from the investment side. They are legally financially separated from one another. The Insurance branch did not need the bail out and still turns a profit, similarly the investment branch can not legally borrow money from the insurance branch. If NBC goes out of business, would GE stop producing light bulbs?
This just wrong , the exec should pay it back out of there own pockets.
are you fucking kidding me right now? jebus cripes. time to ask for a refund.
Whether or not this trip was scheduled and paid before the bailout is pretty much irrelevant. The reason they needed the bailout, was to get money — the smart thing would have been to cancel this vacation, get a partial refund, and get to work instead of drinking drinks while getting mani/pedi’s done and laughing about how us little people are footing the bill for this. And they should be arrested for defrauding the government, or they whould have to have thier wages suspened till every tax payer’s bailout penny was paid back to the gov.
@katiat325: We should be thanking them for this; a $440k lesson on why we need to re-org the whole business. Their management is obviously stupid from top to bottom and needs to be replaced. An $85 billion bailout is meaningless if the people responsible are still in charge, and this just proves that they still are.
And also, we should be writing to our congressional representatives, as well as state reps, about our outrage. It’s time for us to stop being ignorant sheep, and let the people we voted for know that we’re listening, and we’re watching, and you guys better freaking do something. Plus, they’re all about to go campaigning, this should provide them with reading material.
This is bull$@#!. Even if it was booked and paid in advance, I would rather see them cancel it even if they lost every dime of what they paid and stayed home. The fact that they went ahead with this shows the attitude these people have. We as the American people better start making these people accountable as well as the government.
Business expenses are tax deductible too!
@bonedog73: you just had to say this, didn’t you? somehow I do think they’ll actually claim this trip as a team-building training bull$h!!, and will try to get it as a tax break…this makes me even more depressed.
I always felt that one of the conditions of the bailout should have been:
“In order to accept public funds all employees, executives, consultants, etc. recieving more than 500K a year in either regular salary, wage, or bonus pay must accept a pay cut to 500K or leave the company. This restriction will last for 5 years from the date bailout funds are received.”
Or something their abouts. It is redicilous to ask middle class tax payers to fund multimillion dollar salaries.
I just hope they can get an even better vacation off the $700 billion we just gave them. Those poor CEOs must be so stressed out right now.
/sarcasm
Wow…. good timing for Despair.com [despair.com]
Send them to prison. There has to be some way to charge them with theft. They also need to be fired immediately and forced to pay restitution to the taxpayers.
So is our government able to revoke the AIG bailout and let them fuck right off?
Well, I vote for a public hanging. It’s been awhile since this country did something like that. Might make others think.
Hehehe.
Obama was just on in the start of the debate tonight. He brought this AIG $400k waste of money up as an example. He said the treasury should demand that money back and fire everyone involved in the trip.
I just saw that too and I immediately headed for consumerist. This just leaves me speechless… do the people at AIG have no shame? How can someone be so callous? There’s basically no moral twinge at the massive suffering being endured by the public, all the while public monies are basically used to fund their spa vacation. Amazing and yet totally unsurprising that this has happened.
Now it’s personal! This company is being sustained by tax dollars and they think it’s okay to spend it like this? These executives should be tried in court for fraud.
AIG execs
Top Executives at American International Group, Incorporated
Jacob A. Frenkel Divisional Vice Chairman
Edward M. Liddy CEO/Chairman of the Board/Director
Frank G. Wisner Divisional Vice Chairman
Steven J. Bensinger CFO/Vice Chairman, Divisional
Stephen F. Bollenbach Director
Brian T. Schreiber Divisional Senior VP
William N. Dooley Divisional Senior VP
Edmund S. W. Tse Director/Other Corporate Officer
Nicholas C. Walsh Divisional Executive VP
Anastasia D. Kelly Executive VP/General Counsel/Other Corporate Officer
[people.forbes.com]
You can find individual profiles of these jerks in the link. The last one Anastasia Kelly, before she worked at AIG she worked for MCI and before that Sears.
Gee, now we know why AIG tanks with “quality” execs like Kelly.
@bohemian: This what should be done with every company involved in this crap.And don’t forget about the board of directors who were supposed to provide oversight and look out for the stock holders if nothing else.This did not happen overnight.
People should not forget that the ex-ceo Hank Greenberg left during a fraud allegations and was so nervous about his stock award he placed them in his wife’s name.
And kiddies at CNBC have had this toad on as a commentator and seem to worship him.
There seem to be alot of people with the word president associated with their name/position/title so that means they were actually in charge of something?
Anyone brave enough to revolt?
@fisherstudios: A revolt is exactly what we need, I’m in when the time comes.
@fisherstudios: Erik Dinallo mentions “bringing all the remaining employees together is what the company needed to do”…. um yeah. How much do you want to bet that they didn’t invite the f’ing janitor or the receptionist at the front desk! There’s no way they had a whole company outing to help boost moral. This was a select group of assholes going out and doing what they’ve always done: raking a company over coals for their personal gain and enjoyment.
so where in there did they figure that no one would notice their little excursion at our expense? frankly, it’s sickening…