Good catch.
Now, will somebody on the committee hearing today bring that up?

And to further expose the bullsh*T we are being asked to eat, see here.
“Speaking of The New York Times, that paper asked six legal experts to opine for its online edition on whether AIG would be able to evade the bonus obligations in its employment contracts. My contribution to their forum can be read here and the others can be read here. Almost uniformly, the contributions demonstrate just how frivolous Summer’s Sunday excuse was for the payment of these bonsues — that the sanctity of contracts left no way out.”

Hey,wasn’t Liddy the CEO of Allstate when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast,including Misssissippi?

From what I heard ,Allstate was a real POS when it came time to get paid on insurance,and that many policy holders ha to sue to get their claims paid,because Allstate disputed the terms of coverage as written in the CONTRACTUAL policies of the homeowners!

Dugg right here!

Katrina Victims Challenge Insurance Denials Sep 20, 2005 … In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a major storm is brewing over the denial of … The affected companies include: The Allstate Corporation, …
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04…..ruggs.html – 37k – Cached – Similar pages

Consumers Want Allstate Records Kept Public Aug 6, 2007 … “These records shed light on Allstate’s behavior after Hurricane Katrina and Allstate is afraid of the public scrutiny,” Lucas said. …
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04…..trina.html – 34k – Cached – Similar pages

Jury Verdict Against Allstate for Hurricane Katrina Damage … Today a federal jury in Louisiana awarded a family whose home suffered damage as a result of Hurricane Katrina, a judgment against Allstate Insurance …
phoenix.injuryboard.com/miscellaneous/jury-verdict-against-allstate-for-hurricane-katrina-damage.aspx?googleid=215912 – 114k – Cached – Similar pages

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2009 4:00:00 PM
State Farm, Allstate dismissed from Louisiana Katrina case
BY JOHN O’BRIEN

Scruggs
NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) – Two insurance giants will be dismissed from a whistleblower lawsuit over their post-Hurricane Katrina practices because they are already facing one initiated by disgraced plaintiffs attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs.

Wednesday, the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of allegations that State Farm Insurance Cos. and Allstate Insurance Co. cheated the federal flood insurance program, yet reinstated the suit against several other defendants.

The suit was filed by Branch Consultants, a group of former claims adjusters, who said several insurance companies misrepresented the amount of damage done during 2005’s Katrina by wind (covered by policies) and water (covered by the federal program).

The opinion from a three-judge panel said that forcing Allstate and State Farm to fight a suit in Louisiana similar to one filed in Mississippi would contradict the False Claims Act’s goal of preventing “parasitic” whistleblower cases.

A pair of former employees at E.A. Renfroe & Co., sisters Kerri Rigsby and Cori Rigsby Moran, obtained thousands of pages of documents from State Farm, which was working for the company, and Scruggs filed a whistleblower suit against State Farm and Allstate in 2006.

A 2006 order from U.S. District Judge William Acker ordered Scruggs to return the documents to State Farm, but he instead gave them to Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, who had filed his own suit against five companies.

He claimed the order allowed him to turn the documents over to a law enforcement official. Eventually, Scruggs and the sisters were held in civil contempt and ordered to pay $65,000.

Scruggs has spent the last six months in a federal prison in Kentucky after pleading guilty to attempting to bribe a state judge, and recently had 2 1/2 years added to his five-year sentence when he pleaded guilty to attempting to bribe another state judge.

Scruggs first made a name for himself in asbestos cases, representing shipyard workers. After that, his work led to the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, which has an estimated worth of $246 billion for the 52 participating territories and states. _______________________________

BTW, Richard Scruggs is Trent Lott’s brother-in-law.

I agree good catch. This idea that Liddy is somehow a white knight is ludicrous.

Bonuses generally require performance above and beyond the call of duty. Try getting your employer to pay you a hefty bonus for earning a, “Meets Expectations” rating.

I can’t imagine how traders who sent their division and their company into the tank could have earned much above a zero rating on the performance evals, unless some kind HR person just laid it on on the doorstep of “changed circumstances”. If they did, then arguably similar changed circumstances should prevent their bonuses being paid.

Retention bonuses are, admittedly, a slightly different kettle of fish and we need to know a lot more about these specific bonuses. As EW has speculated, these could have been agreed after the traders, their division and AIG corporate knew they were in the tank. A pretty odd response, to reward the very players who ruined your company and a lot of US taxpayers.

What was the business judgment that led to issuing these bonuses? Was it objectively reasonable? What level of management agreed it, presumably the board and its comp committee as well as senior HR and operating heads. Regardless, the entire AIG board has failed miserably and should promptly resign.

Million dollar plus bonuses have been the norm rather than the exception-especially for CEOs of failing corporations.

What about Fuld,for one example.

MANY execs who took the big bux went before Congress-and to a man-could not answer how their firms manged to go under-they were clueless.

So, is it just NOW that the public is figuring out that these assholes have been ewarded for their wilingness to do a job ON the American public,and their shareholder,in particular?

I hope the front pagers either move this up front or cover this angle its a great talking point! Nice Work:)

I used to live in a town that was wiped out by an F5 tornado years later you could drive around town looking at the houses that were rebuilt and those not rebuilt were all insured by ALLSTATE. I moved to Florida and with the huricanes was a similar situation and even if they did pay they dropped You right afterward. When I was a teenager many years ago my best friend had his car insurance dropped because his wife had an accident five years before he married her.
If this guy ran Allstate I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.