In the ongoing saga of the economic crisis, AIG has been squarely portrayed as the villains. Everybody piled on the bandwagon of villifying the greed and brazenness of their multi-million dollar bonuses (yes, including this blog).
But is that the full and true story? Here's a letter published in the Opinion section of The New York Times - it's a resignation letter, actually, sent by Jake DeSantis, an executive VP of the AIG's much maligned Financial Products unit, explaining why he quit:
I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage.
After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.
I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.
(Photo: jdiggans [Flickr])
If you support the TRILLION $$$$ plan from Obama, than you are a FOOL. Try paying off debt with a debit card when you don't have money in the bank. That is what our once great government is now doing.
What an idiot.
I like how these phonies try to make themselves “honorable.” Funny how this one person that wants to show the world what a ‘great’ guy he is, can only pontificate because of the insane amounts of wealth he has. No doubt he has a nice chunk of change from his massive bonuses and insane salary amounts from previous years, not to mention the fancy penthouse suites, cars, and yachts. There is no way the rank and file could afford to quit like that. We have bills to pay and mouths to feed.
The man had a salary of $1 a year. Other than that, his only compensation was his retention bonus -- which AIG agreed to pay him, by contract. What is wrong with demanding to be paid that which he was promised? What is right about the federal government stealing that money because he and his co-workers are unpopular?
If government can simply take money away from those that the mob dislikes, then none of us are safe.
My point is in regards to this one V.P., if he's trying to portray himself as some honorable and principled man, well, he failed. A one dollar salary means little when it's for a guy that is worth millions. Now if it were a man that was worth only thousands, has a car loan, mortgage, and two kids to feed and was in a financially precarious situation, then I would respect him. Heck if I won the lottery I'd have no problems taking a 90 percent pay cut at my current job just to reward my hard working junior employees.
And I agree with you Wok. Here's the world's smallest violin.....
its capitalism. sell off your remaining assets and close your doors. dont get any money for your hard work... thats the way it should have been. its not up to A.I.G. to make promises they cant fulfill without goverment handouts... if they promise the money from what they are assured to make, great. if they have to take taxpayers money(and why did they get it in the first place?) to do so, then the contracts are no longer valid.
im sorry if someone asked for your three quarter of a million dollar bonus back. if you want to get paid for working, go to a place that has money with which to pay you. otherwise, go whistle.
If he didn't know what was going on, he should have been fired.
I wonder if the charity he gave the money to has his wife on the Board of Directors.
They are handing out TRILLIONS and TRILLIONS of dollar to the very people who CREATED the problem. But, only those who are politically connected.
And people are freaking out about a few measly million dollar bonuses? Seriously, WHO GIVES A FLYING FUCK?
Bernake and Geithner's heads should be on posts in the middle of Washington D.C. I don't care what this guy has to say, but I'm not going to get agitated about his bonus.
Who is John Galt?
feel sorry for the guy, but yet i don't , just a perfect scapegoat.
That said, getting upset about the bonuses won't make it better, as it was 1% of the bailout paid to them. If you want to get upset about bailing them out, that's fine (I disagree) but getting upset at the bonuses draws attention away from the real problem.
This guy donating his bonus does nothing, and he's just calling attention to himself. He should've saved the bonus since he will not be hired by any company on wall street again.
The answer -as demonstrated by example from our government: BORROW MORE MONEY!
Who voted for this clown,stand up and admit it.
Who are the Golgafrinchans?
-Ayn Rand
So he's going back to his multi-million dollar Connecticut mansion and sitting on his pity-pot. He and his ilk should all be in jail.