AIG Denies Wrongdoing In Share Probe
By Arthur D. Postal, Washington Bureau Chief
NU Online News Service, Dec. 14, 4:26 p.m. EST, Washington?American International Group is denying any wrongdoing in connection with a federal probe into whether it acted to improperly control its stock price before it acquired American General Corp. for shares in 2001.[@@]
AIG's denials were in connection with a Wall Street Journal article which said Credit Suisse First Boston had been issued a subpoena by the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York regarding its trading activities in August 2001.
Victoria Harman, a spokesman for CSFB, would not confirm or deny the firm had been issued a subpoena in connection with the probe. She added that, "CSFB simply handled a customer's trade in AIG shares. We are cooperating fully with the authorities in this matter."
The investigation of AIG deals with its behavior during the period when it was about to acquire Houston-based American General in a deal for $23 billion in AIG stock. Completion of the acquisition would have been more costly for AIG if its stock price fell below a certain threshold in a 10-day period ending three days before the deal closed.
The Wall Street Journal article said that CSFB is not a target of the probe, but has received a subpoena for information about its AIG trading activities during the period in question.
But, AIG categorically denied wrongdoing. Joe Norton, a spokesman, said AIG "was not buying stock during the pricing period nor did anyone to our knowledge buy AIG stock on AIG's behalf. These anonymous allegations are unfounded and irresponsible."
The Journal has previously reported that investigators were probing whether AIG Chairman Maurice Greenberg brought pressure on the specialist firm that oversees AIG stock trading.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
