Some Will Pay Back AIG Bonuses

迫于公众日益高涨的怒火，美国国际集团(AIG)金融产品部门的部分高级员工已经同意返还获得的高额留任奖金。这个名誉扫地的部门令保险巨头AIG陷入了困境，却向员工发放了1.65亿美元的奖金，激起了公众的强烈不满。Associated PressAIG首席执行长李迪在国会山遭遇有组织的抗议知情人士说，返还奖金的人包括收到逾640万美元最高奖金的波凌(Douglas Poling)。现年48岁的波凌是福特汽车公司(Ford Motor Co.)前首席执行长的儿子，他在AIG担任执行副总裁，负责能源和基础设施投资。AIG金融产品部门约有418位现雇员和前雇员收到了奖金，他是其中之一。波凌拒绝置评。放弃奖金的承诺周三未能平息公众潮水般的愤怒。公众的愤怒在持续了一整天的众议院委员会会议期间显露无疑。会上，政府任命的AIG首席执行长李迪(Edward Liddy)一直作证至周三晚上。国会众议员在奖金问题上严厉指责了李迪和AIG，并誓言要收回奖金。新罕布什尔州民主党众议员赫兹(Paul Hodes)说，AIG这三个字母代表了“自大无能和贪婪”。【译注：三个词的英文开头字母正好是AIG]李迪在证词中承认，AIG这个名字已被严重破坏，名誉扫地，公司可能会逐渐弃用这个名字。李迪进一步试图回避公众的厌恶，他承认美国民众对AIG员工接受奖金暴跳如雷。他说，他要求那些收到10万及以上奖金的员工至少放弃一半的奖金。他说，一些收到奖金的人已经同意全额返还奖金，不过他没有透露已经返还的奖金数额和员工人数。证词还揭示了对AIG金融产品部门的员工极其有利的薪酬文化──不看业绩。比如，2007年这个部门的员工获得了奖金，无论部门是否盈利。2008年的奖金计划制定时也是不管帐面损失照旧发放奖金。这个部门去年总计亏损400多亿美元。Jason Reed/Reuters李迪在准备发表证言，背后还有高举标语的抗议者在反AIG愤怒情绪的推动下，国会民主党议员迅速行动，周三公布了新法，对获得50亿美元及以上联邦救助的公司的高管征收新税。根据这项法律，高管和高薪员工的奖金将按90%的税率征收附加税；该法具有追溯力，对2008年12月31日之后发放的奖金均有效。众议院多数党领袖霍耶(Steny Hoyer)说，这项法案表达了民众的愤怒和反感。周三李迪与众议院委员会的交锋暴露出AIG同美国政府之间棘手的相互作用。自去年9月以来，美国政府已批准向AIG提供了1,733亿美元的联邦救助资金，使政府成为AIG的最大股东，共持有后者近80%的股份。这笔救助资金和奖金引发的风波让AIG成为华尔街贪得无厌的象征，而华尔街也正是金融危机的始作俑者。AIG是接收政府救助最多的美国金融机构。李迪说，他是去年10月或11月听说到这笔奖金的，并已经同Fed讨论了数月之久。他说，我们做的一切事情都是在与Fed协力进行。他后来说道，我们的方方面面都让人倍感担忧。李迪多次为发放奖金的决定做出辩解，称AIG乃至纳税人都可能会受到人才流失的打击，而这些人知道如何解决这家子公司的未清交易如何通过对冲来平衡未清交易的风险。李迪说，我正在竭尽全力防止这项业务出现无法控制的崩溃。他指出，这家子公司仍有价值约1.6万亿美元的未清交易，低于去年的2.7万亿美元。众议院金融服务委员会主席弗兰克(Barney Frank)给李迪施加压力，要求提供奖金获得者的信息。李迪说，只有在得到保守秘密的承诺后才会答应这个要求，因为这家子公司的员工受到了威胁，其中有人曾说要用钢琴弦杀死他们。弗兰克拒绝做出这种承诺，并说他可能发出传票索取相关信息，但他表示，他将同执法人员协商安全问题。纽约司法部长库莫(Andrew Cuomo)说，奖金最高者拿到了640多万美元，但他没有透露此人的姓名。《华尔街日报》是首家披露此人是波凌的媒体。排在他后面的六个人各获得了400多万美元奖金，还有15人获得了200万美元以上的奖金，51人获得了100多万美元的奖金。库莫办公室说，在获得奖金超过100万美元以上的人中，有11人已经离开了公司。《纽约邮报》(New York Post)最先报导了一些奖金获得者的姓名。与此同时，AIG说正考虑出售位于曼哈顿下区的总部大楼以及另一处大楼。RANDALL SMITH / LIAM PLEVEN相关阅读美国会通过法案授权司法部收回AIG所发奖金 2009-03-19美国国会考虑征税收回AIG奖金 2009-03-18AIG若破产对高盛意味着什么？ 2009-03-18AIG救助资金可能落入对冲基金口袋 2009-03-18AIG因奖金问题深陷政治漩涡 2009-03-17AIG将向员工支付4.5亿美元奖金 2009-03-16 本文涉及股票或公司document.write (truthmeter('2009年03月19日13:57', 'AIG'));美国国际集团英文名称：American International Group Inc.总部地点：美国上市地点：纽约证交所股票代码：AIG


Some top employees of American International Group Inc.'s disgraced Financial Products group have agreed to return hefty retention bonuses under mounting public outrage over $165 million in payouts to a unit that brought the insurer to its knees.Among them was Douglas Poling, who received the richest payment of more than $6.4 million, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Poling, the 48-year-old son of a former chief executive of Ford Motor Co., is an executive vice president with responsibility for energy and infrastructure investments. He is one of the roughly 418 current and former employees from AIG's financial-products unit who received bonus payments. Mr. Poling declined to comment.The promise of forfeitures did little to quell the groundswell of public anger Wednesday. That collective ire was apparent during a daylong U.S. House committee meeting, where AIG's government-installed chief executive, Edward Liddy, testified into the early evening. U.S. representatives excoriated Mr. Liddy and the giant insurer for the bonus awards, and vowed to extract the payments.AIG, said Rep. Paul Hodes (D., N.H.), stood for 'arrogance, incompetence and greed.'Mr. Liddy conceded in testimony that the AIG name had been so damaged and 'disgraced' that the company would probably phase it out over time.The CEO further tried to parry the public's disgust, acknowledging Americans were 'mad as a hornet' that employees would collect the bonuses. He said he asked those who received $100,000 or more to forfeit at least half the amount. Some bonus recipients had already agreed to return the payments in full, he said, although he didn't provide details about how much had been repaid, or by how many employees.The testimony also revealed a culture of compensation that was highly favorable to AIG's financial-products employees -- regardless of performance. For instance, the employees were paid bonuses in 2007, whether the unit turned a profit or not. The 2008 bonus plan was also designed to kick in without regard to paper losses. In all, the unit reported losses of more than $40 billion last year.Spurred by the anti-AIG anger, congressional Democrats, moving swiftly, unveiled legislation Wednesday to put new taxes on executives working at any firm receiving at least $5 billion in federal assistance. The legislation would impose a 90% surtax on payments made to executives and high-earning employees, effective retroactively to bonuses paid after Dec. 31, 2008.The measure is 'an expression of the people's anger and disgust,' said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.).The back-and-forth on Wednesday between Mr. Liddy and the committee exposed the awkward interplay between AIG and the U.S. government. Officials have authorized $173.3 billion in federal aid since September, making the government AIG's majority owner with a nearly 80% stake. The bailout funds -- the largest received by any U.S. financial firm -- and the bonus flap have turned AIG into a symbol of excesses on Wall Street that led to the financial crisis.Mr. Liddy said he learned about the bonuses in October or November, and that they had been discussed with the Fed for months. 'Everything we do, we do in partnership with the Federal Reserve,' he said at one point. He added later, 'There was great angst on all of our parts.'Mr. Liddy repeatedly defended the decision to pay the bonuses by saying that the company -- and, by extension, taxpayers -- could be hurt by losing people who know how to unwind the unit's outstanding trades and balance its outstanding risk with hedges.'I'm trying desperately to prevent an uncontrolled collapse of that business,' Mr. Liddy said. He noted that there is still about $1.6 trillion worth of trades in place at the unit, down from $2.7 trillion last year.Mr. Liddy was pressed by Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, to provide the identities of the people who got the bonuses. He said he would only do so if he was promised they would be kept confidential, citing threats against the unit's employees, including one to kill them with piano wire.Mr. Frank declined to provide that assurance and said he might subpoena the information, though he said he would confer with law-enforcement officials about security issues.New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said the top recipient received more than $6.4 million, but didn't disclose the executive's name. The Wall Street Journal was the first to identify him as Mr. Poling. The next top six bonus recipients were handed more than $4 million each, another 15 individuals received $2 million or more, and 51 additional employees received $1 million or more.Of those people collecting more than $1 million, eleven have already left the company, Mr. Cuomo's office said. Some of the bonus recipient names were first reported by the New York Post.Meanwhile, AIG said it is considering selling its headquarters building in lower Manhattan as well as another.RANDALL SMITH / LIAM PLEVEN