Remember this is ALL pre-Obama.--
This is just ONE story--
Pin AIG woes on Brooklyn boy: Joseph Cassano walked away with $315 million while company staggered
Tuesday, March 17th 2009, 9:18 AM
In our fury over the bonuses at AIG, we should not forget the PIGs there who pocketed millions while endangering the global economy.
At the top of the list is 54-year-old Joseph Cassano, a Brooklyn cop's kid made good who went oh so bad.
As head of the Financial Products unit, Cassano racked up billions of losses while assuring investors it was nearly impossible for his unit to lose.
"It is hard for us, without being flippant, to even see a scenario within any kind of [rhyme] or reason that would see us losing one dollar in any of those transactions," he told investors.
Before he was finally fired last March, Cassano pocketed $280 million in cash and an additional $34 million in bonuses.
Under a "retirement" agreement marked "confidential," Cassano also got a $1 million-a-month "consulting fee."
AIG subsequently cut off these payments, but Cassano still walked away with more than $315 million while the company staggered under $440 billion in liabilities. Taxpayers had to pour in $170 billion in bailout money.
The investors who lost big because of this cop's kid with the $1million-a-month retirement sweetener include police pension funds in Florida, Ohio and Michigan. Cassano would be advised not to get caught speeding in Michigan, where AIG losses hit judge pensions as well.
To put Cassano's personal score in context, his end is three times the annual budget of his alma mater, Brooklyn College, to which he has not contributed a dime.
He was a political science major, Class of 1977, and he seemed to be on the way to do his borough proud when he went to work on Wall Street.
He instead gave new meaning to a saying among Brooklyn crooks who forayed into Manhattan during his father's tenure as a cop.
"Manhattan make it and Brooklyn take it."
Joseph Cassano started out at Drexel Burnham Lambert under Michael Milken, "the Junk Bond King." Drexel imploded in 1990 and Milken landed in prison.
AIG promptly hired a team of Drexel people to start a Financial Products unit, Cassano among them. Cassano became the head and began dealing in securities known as "credit default swaps" out of one office in Wilton, Conn., and another in England, dubbed "the London casino."
The cop's kid jetted between a house in Westport, Conn., and an $8 million townhouse in London that AIG provided. He was said to be smart and hardworking, but arrogant and given to verbal abuse.
Company auditor Joseph St. Denis became concerned about the Financial Products unit, but Cassano barred him from checking.
St. Denis later quoted Cassano as saying, "I have deliberately excluded you ... because I was concerned that you would pollute the process."
St. Denis would recall Cassano saying he did not want to be promoted even further up the corporate ladder "because it would separate [him] from the money." St. Denis would remember Cassano telling him "AIG's corporate management was "scared to death" of him."
However afraid the bosses may have been, by February of last year, AIG's mounting loss had grown so large Cassano was pushed to "retire." The company kept up the outrageous monthly payments until a congressional committee lambasted the scheme.
"When I retire I want to come work for you at $1 million a month," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.).
Much of Cassano's retirement will be occupied with investor suits filed as recently as last week. The suit by the Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension Fund charges Cassano and his pals "knew or recklessly ignored facts indicating that AIG faced mounting losses" even as they assured investors all was well.
That sounds like fraud.
Here is the link--http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/03/17/2009-03-17_pin_aig_woes_on_brooklyn_boy_joseph_cass-1.html
And here is another list , with photos of the CEO's, who got rich while the decisions they made broke their companies.
This just ain't right.
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