COMMENTARY
This is a useful essay, but it also reflects a problem with citizen journalism and Internet publication. In my view the essay does not put the history of AIG into perspective very well, and picks up the story in 2005 when Greenberg was in a big fight with the management of AIG, and lost. I do not remember the details of the fight, but it was about the fundamental direction that AIG should be taking.

I used to know a lot about AIG essentially in the 1960s and the 1970s. Arguably in those days AIG was the best US international insurance company with a very big presence in the Far Easr, but also active in other remote areas of the world. My company became a client for some our operations in Africa, for example. If my memory serves me right, Greenberg took over from the original founder C.V.Starr. The internal management arguments at AIG in the early 2000s were very messsy, and I wish I knew what it was about. My impression ... though unsupported by any specific evidence ... is that the management group that won is the group that wrecked AIG and not Greenberg. I really would like to know the answer.

In my view, the idea that it was PWC that was at the center of the call for Greenberg to step down is a stretch. This sounds like a bit of historical rewrite, likely by one of the group that pushed Greenberg out.

The idea that Greenberg has a case against the US Government seems totally ludicrous ... but the way the law works is that suit gets filed against any and all parties that have deep pockets. It is normal.
Peter Burgess

Maurice Greenberg former CEO who helped wreck AIG sues US for $25 Bil. for HIS stock losses The former CEO of American International Group Maurice Greenberg, is suing the U.S. government for $25 billion to cover the drop of HIS A.I.G. stock during the bailout of A.I.G. that cost taxpayers $85 Billion. Greenberg says U.S. owes him $25B for AIG rescue Some people just don't know when to shut up. Greenberg asserts that the government took valuable property from him when, in return for providing tens of billions of dollars in aid, it took ownership of 80 percent of AIG. The lawsuit (which should have come with its own laugh track) claims the Feds violated the Fifth Amendment, which says private property can't be taken for 'public use, without just compensation.' Now those of you still suffering from Traumatic Financial Shock Disorder may not remember exactly why the citizens of the United States came to own the company Greenberg founded. To recap: AIG had issued billions of dollars in insurance on bonds made out of subprime mortgages. Now to be fair to Greenberg, I should note that by 2007 he was no longer employed by AIG as chairman. He was then just a major shareholder. He had 'resigned' in 2005 when, as Bethany McClean and Joe Nocera recount in their great book All The Devils Are Here, 'accountants from PWC told the [AIG] board that it would no longer vouch for the firm's books if Greenberg stayed on as CEO.' That's how bad Greenberg's slipshod management made things back in 2005. The mess Greenberg left behind contributed to the collapse of A.I.G. in 2008. The only reason the stock has any value today is because of what the government did. This is a fact. Now Greenberg wants U.S. taxpayers to pony up $ 25 BILLION to feather his nest. After his reckless greed helped to wreck the American economy and cost millions of us 'little people' ten of Trillions of dollars in savings and home values, and threw millions more out or work and out of their homes that they could no longer afford without jobs. Fact Sheet: Loss of values in political parties, media, and the money markets Americans lost $5 trillion from their pensions and savings during this economic crisis, plus $13 trillion in home values. He added that workers aged 55-60—people who have diligently saved for 20 to 30 years—lost 25 percent of their 401Ks. The arrogance and sense of entitlement of one percenters like Maurice Greenberg is absolutely breathtaking. Greenberg would be spending the rest of his life in prison if the U.S. didn't have a two tiered system of justice. A legal system Greenburg is now taking advantage of to inflict further injury on 307 million americans, many of who have already suffered greatly form Greenberg's unbridled greed.