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[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Forum Board ] [ FAQ ] Mr Liddy is quite good at twisting the facts: Posted by JK (the other JK) on November 12, 2008 at 9:28 PM In Reply to: CEO of AIG was on Larry King Live posted by CC in OC on November 12, 2008 at 8:11 PM : ** $150 Billion is going to AIG (yes the guys that threw the $400K party and the executives are still flying private jets to luxury spas because they are "stressed out"). ** : The CEO of AIG was on Larry King Live last night; he explained how and why the half million was spent. It appears that the public--aided and abetted by our incorrigibly biased, uninformed and sloppy media--has been woefully misinformed as to how the money was spent and why. : LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, exclusive...you bailed them out with billions of your hard-earned money and they keep spending. What is AIG doing? And is the company trying to cover it up? The CEO gives us his first interview since calls for his resignation today. Ed Liddy was appointed chief executive of AIG on September 18th, the day the government bailout was announced. Since then, the government has loaned AIG $123 billion and has an almost 80 percent stake in the company. But several high dollar executive retreats since the bailout have infuriated some members of Congress and the public. The latest was a meeting held last week in Phoenix. And joining us now in New York is Ed Liddy, the chairman and CEO of AIG American International. Did you realize, Ed, that this meeting would create a public uproar? : EDWARD LIDDY, CHAIRMAN, CEO, AIG: You know, we thought that there was a good chance that it would be received poorly. It certainly was. But, Larry, I'd like the opportunity to explain what it was. It was not an executive retreat. It was 150 independent financial planners. They're not AIG employees. They could sell any products they want from any of our competitors. The purpose of this is to do education and training so they would understand our products, how to sell them and to whom they should sell them. If mortgage brokers had done more of this with subprime mortgages, we may not have been in the mess that we're in. So this is an educational seminar for the tens of thousands of independent brokers and financial planners that AIG works through. This was 150 people. It wasn't AIG executives. It wasn't AIG employees. : KING: What did it cost AIG? : LIDDY: It cost us $23,000. The bulk of this -- 90 percent of this was paid for by the participants who were there and our partners at this conference. : KING: And all this is very explainable. I've spoken at many conferences just like that. But why, logically, put yourself in a position of even having it questioned by even holding it at the kind of resort you held it at? : LIDDY: Yes, Larry, it's a good question. You mentioned, in the seven weeks I've been here, we've gone through -- we canceled about over 160 conferences or events. But when you have the organization the size of AIG, you really have to train the people who are selling the product. What we want to do is make sure they understand the product, all of its features and they know what to sell to whom. We don't want a variable annuity sold to an 85-year-old widow. So there's a certain amount of training and education that simply has to take place, particularly in an organization this size. That's exactly what this was. We have attempted to explain this to all of the news media and journalists. Most of them got it, looked at the fact pattern and said oh, I understand it exactly for what it was. One news agency did not. : KING: And someone said there were no signs in the hotel at all that AIG was involved. : LIDDY: You know, we've tried to do two things, Larry. First, we are really cutting corners. We're doing the same thing the American taxpayer is doing. We are tightening our belts. We didn't use any signage. Second, we didn't want the participants there to be absolutely persuaded that they were doing something wrong. They weren't. So we had no signage whatsoever. It wasn't an attempt to be secretive. We just simply thought it was the right thing to do. : KING: Terry Bradshaw was supposed to speak and that was canceled, because of the fee? : LIDDY: No, actually the fee was being paid by one of our partners. He was canceled because it's another sign of belt tightening. It was simply something that we didn't think was appropriate, we didn't need, we didn't want the money spent on that, so we tightened the belt and cut that out. : KING: Are all corporate junkets on the part of AIG being shut down? : LIDDY: Well, this was not a corporate junket. As I mentioned... : KING: I know. I mean I'm talking about others. : LIDDY: Yes. As I mentioned, over 160 conferences of any kind and events -- we are tightening our belt. We appreciate what the taxpayer and federal government has done for us. We intend to repay every single borrowed -- every single penny that we've borrowed or that we owe them. And to do that, we just have to be a new AIG. We have to be much more expense conscious. That's what we're doing. : KING: Now, there are previous -- will you admit that some of the previous meetings were questionable, a conference at a resort in Southern California with $7,000 in greens fees, an event for over 800 people at the Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport? : LIDDY: You know, the one in California, Larry, it happened, I think, five or six days after we took the original federal bailout. We looked at canceling that one. It would have cost more to cancel it than it did to hold it. And, once again, that was all independent financial counselors. It's the way we do business. You know, some simple math. The one in Phoenix cost us $23,000. The group of 150 people that were there sold over $200 million of our product year to date in 2008. You simply have to find a way to stay in front of those people and make sure that they're selling our products the right way. : KING: All right. You've been in less than two months, yet Representative Elijah Cummins called for your resignation. Do you have any plans? How do you react to that? : LIDDY: Well, I talked to the representative today. I think he's much calmer now that he has some of the facts. And I've shared exactly what the situation was. I think I'm making good progress within AIG. We can resolve the distress that AIG is under. We can absolutely pay back the loan. We pay an enormous amount of interest every month and every quarter and every year to the American taxpayer. We can be successful in this endeavor. And I think I can lead us to that success. : KING: Have you personally spoken to attorney general of New York, Andrew Cuomo, who has threatened suits against you? : LIDDY: I have. I've spent time with the attorney general. Again, he understands what's appropriate for a business to do and what's inappropriate. All the things that don't make any difference, all the things that we should not be doing in this situation, we've cut out. : The event you mentioned and the one in California, you have to -- you have to sell your business. You have to educate the people who sell your business. Both of those were intended to do that. : KING: Ed, what do you say to the public watching who, after all, are the taxpayers? They're helping to bail out the company. Why was it necessary for them to do this and will they be paid back? : LIDDY: Yes, it's a really good question and I'd like to spend a few minutes on it. AIG is a very large company. We're the largest insurance company in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world. We do business in 130 countries. As such, we touch most of the major financial institutions one way or another around the globe. I think it was the feeling of the policy makers -- and I agree with it -- that if AIG had failed, right on the heels of the Lehman Brothers' failure, it would have been catastrophic for AIG, but also for the financial system in the U.S. and worldwide. You know, I understand that taxpayers are nervous. They look at a bailout and wonder well, I'm not getting bailed out, why should the company? If we could just talk about the bailout for a minute. I think we will, in fact, repay the taxpayer every penny that we owe them. But we're also paying the taxpayer very fairly for the help that we're getting. So on the preferred stock that we got from the Treasury Department, we're going to pay 10 percent per year on that -- $4 billion a year interest payments from AIG to the taxpayer. If we borrowed all of the $60 billion, the interest rate on that, we pay about $3.5 billion or $3.6 billion a year on that. So, sometimes when you use the word bailout it makes it sound like somebody is just giving you the money. But that's not true in this case. We are paying handsomely to the Federal Reserve and to the U.S. Treasury for the money that we're receiving. We need it. We intend to pay every single penny, plus interest, back to the taxpayer. : KING: Ed, I thank you for joining us. Would you join us again sometime soon? I'd like to delve into this a lot more. : LIDDY: I'll join you again, Larry. And I'm going to do it when we are successful. : KING: OK. That's a promise. : LIDDY: Thank you. : KING: Ed Liddy, chairman and CEO of AIG, American International Group. FACT: They spent $443,343.71 on a subsidiary retreat at the St Regis Resort Monarch Beach in Dana Point, CA. $7000 in golf fees and $23,280 in spa treatments. $200,000 was for hotel rooms and $150,000 for catered banquets. http://www.luxist.com/2008/10/07/aig-partied-at-the-st-regis-monarch-beach/ Follow Ups: a crook is good at twisting the facts ? LOL. (n/t) hard money lender 11:03 PM, 11/12/08 (1) Time to invest in resort spa stocks? (nt) Joe 4:26 PM, 11/13/08 (0) Post a Followup: Name : E-Mail : Subject : Comments: : : ** $150 Billion is going to AIG (yes the guys that threw the $400K party and the executives are still flying private jets to luxury spas because they are "stressed out"). ** : : The CEO of AIG was on Larry King Live last night; he explained how and why the half million was spent. It appears that the public--aided and abetted by our incorrigibly biased, uninformed and sloppy media--has been woefully misinformed as to how the money was spent and why. : : LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, exclusive...you bailed them out with billions of your hard-earned money and they keep spending. What is AIG doing? And is the company trying to cover it up? The CEO gives us his first interview since calls for his resignation today. Ed Liddy was appointed chief executive of AIG on September 18th, the day the government bailout was announced. Since then, the government has loaned AIG $123 billion and has an almost 80 percent stake in the company. But several high dollar executive retreats since the bailout have infuriated some members of Congress and the public. The latest was a meeting held last week in Phoenix. And joining us now in New York is Ed Liddy, the chairman and CEO of AIG American International. Did you realize, Ed, that this meeting would create a public uproar? : : EDWARD LIDDY, CHAIRMAN, CEO, AIG: You know, we thought that there was a good chance that it would be received poorly. It certainly was. But, Larry, I'd like the opportunity to explain what it was. It was not an executive retreat. It was 150 independent financial planners. They're not AIG employees. They could sell any products they want from any of our competitors. The purpose of this is to do education and training so they would understand our products, how to sell them and to whom they should sell them. If mortgage brokers had done more of this with subprime mortgages, we may not have been in the mess that we're in. So this is an educational seminar for the tens of thousands of independent brokers and financial planners that AIG works through. This was 150 people. It wasn't AIG executives. It wasn't AIG employees. : : KING: What did it cost AIG? : : LIDDY: It cost us $23,000. The bulk of this -- 90 percent of this was paid for by the participants who were there and our partners at this conference. : : KING: And all this is very explainable. I've spoken at many conferences just like that. But why, logically, put yourself in a position of even having it questioned by even holding it at the kind of resort you held it at? : : LIDDY: Yes, Larry, it's a good question. You mentioned, in the seven weeks I've been here, we've gone through -- we canceled about over 160 conferences or events. But when you have the organization the size of AIG, you really have to train the people who are selling the product. What we want to do is make sure they understand the product, all of its features and they know what to sell to whom. We don't want a variable annuity sold to an 85-year-old widow. So there's a certain amount of training and education that simply has to take place, particularly in an organization this size. That's exactly what this was. We have attempted to explain this to all of the news media and journalists. Most of them got it, looked at the fact pattern and said oh, I understand it exactly for what it was. One news agency did not. : : KING: And someone said there were no signs in the hotel at all that AIG was involved. : : LIDDY: You know, we've tried to do two things, Larry. First, we are really cutting corners. We're doing the same thing the American taxpayer is doing. We are tightening our belts. We didn't use any signage. Second, we didn't want the participants there to be absolutely persuaded that they were doing something wrong. They weren't. So we had no signage whatsoever. It wasn't an attempt to be secretive. We just simply thought it was the right thing to do. : : KING: Terry Bradshaw was supposed to speak and that was canceled, because of the fee? : : LIDDY: No, actually the fee was being paid by one of our partners. He was canceled because it's another sign of belt tightening. It was simply something that we didn't think was appropriate, we didn't need, we didn't want the money spent on that, so we tightened the belt and cut that out. : : KING: Are all corporate junkets on the part of AIG being shut down? : : LIDDY: Well, this was not a corporate junket. As I mentioned... : : KING: I know. I mean I'm talking about others. : : LIDDY: Yes. As I mentioned, over 160 conferences of any kind and events -- we are tightening our belt. We appreciate what the taxpayer and federal government has done for us. We intend to repay every single borrowed -- every single penny that we've borrowed or that we owe them. And to do that, we just have to be a new AIG. We have to be much more expense conscious. That's what we're doing. : : KING: Now, there are previous -- will you admit that some of the previous meetings were questionable, a conference at a resort in Southern California with $7,000 in greens fees, an event for over 800 people at the Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport? : : LIDDY: You know, the one in California, Larry, it happened, I think, five or six days after we took the original federal bailout. We looked at canceling that one. It would have cost more to cancel it than it did to hold it. And, once again, that was all independent financial counselors. It's the way we do business. You know, some simple math. The one in Phoenix cost us $23,000. The group of 150 people that were there sold over $200 million of our product year to date in 2008. You simply have to find a way to stay in front of those people and make sure that they're selling our products the right way. : : KING: All right. You've been in less than two months, yet Representative Elijah Cummins called for your resignation. Do you have any plans? How do you react to that? : : LIDDY: Well, I talked to the representative today. I think he's much calmer now that he has some of the facts. And I've shared exactly what the situation was. I think I'm making good progress within AIG. We can resolve the distress that AIG is under. We can absolutely pay back the loan. We pay an enormous amount of interest every month and every quarter and every year to the American taxpayer. We can be successful in this endeavor. And I think I can lead us to that success. : : KING: Have you personally spoken to attorney general of New York, Andrew Cuomo, who has threatened suits against you? : : LIDDY: I have. I've spent time with the attorney general. Again, he understands what's appropriate for a business to do and what's inappropriate. All the things that don't make any difference, all the things that we should not be doing in this situation, we've cut out. : : The event you mentioned and the one in California, you have to -- you have to sell your business. You have to educate the people who sell your business. Both of those were intended to do that. : : KING: Ed, what do you say to the public watching who, after all, are the taxpayers? They're helping to bail out the company. Why was it necessary for them to do this and will they be paid back? : : LIDDY: Yes, it's a really good question and I'd like to spend a few minutes on it. AIG is a very large company. We're the largest insurance company in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world. We do business in 130 countries. As such, we touch most of the major financial institutions one way or another around the globe. I think it was the feeling of the policy makers -- and I agree with it -- that if AIG had failed, right on the heels of the Lehman Brothers' failure, it would have been catastrophic for AIG, but also for the financial system in the U.S. and worldwide. You know, I understand that taxpayers are nervous. They look at a bailout and wonder well, I'm not getting bailed out, why should the company? If we could just talk about the bailout for a minute. I think we will, in fact, repay the taxpayer every penny that we owe them. But we're also paying the taxpayer very fairly for the help that we're getting. So on the preferred stock that we got from the Treasury Department, we're going to pay 10 percent per year on that -- $4 billion a year interest payments from AIG to the taxpayer. If we borrowed all of the $60 billion, the interest rate on that, we pay about $3.5 billion or $3.6 billion a year on that. So, sometimes when you use the word bailout it makes it sound like somebody is just giving you the money. But that's not true in this case. We are paying handsomely to the Federal Reserve and to the U.S. Treasury for the money that we're receiving. We need it. We intend to pay every single penny, plus interest, back to the taxpayer. : : KING: Ed, I thank you for joining us. Would you join us again sometime soon? I'd like to delve into this a lot more. : : LIDDY: I'll join you again, Larry. And I'm going to do it when we are successful. : : KING: OK. That's a promise. : : LIDDY: Thank you. : : KING: Ed Liddy, chairman and CEO of AIG, American International Group. : FACT: They spent $443,343.71 on a subsidiary retreat at the St Regis Resort Monarch Beach in Dana Point, CA. $7000 in golf fees and $23,280 in spa treatments. $200,000 was for hotel rooms and $150,000 for catered banquets. http://www.luxist.com/2008/10/07/aig-partied-at-the-st-regis-monarch-beach/ [ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Forum Board ] [ FAQ ] WWWAdmin 2.0a © 1997 Matt Wright and DBasics Software Company, All Rights Reserved

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