"Troubled insurance giant American International Group paid bonuses of $1 million or more to 73 employees, including 11 who no longer work for the company, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday."
"According to the attorney general's office, the top individual bonus was more than $6.4 million, and the top seven received more than $4 million each."
AXIOM OF EFFECTIVE PROPAGANDA #1: Give people permission to hate something, and it takes their minds completely away from what you're really doing.
Used effectively and apparently intentionally by the past administration, but in this case possibly "inadvertent." (The "permission" (from Obama) came only after the hatred had already erupted.)
At least one other company receiving a large bailout convinced its executives to accept $1/year base salary and to waive similar "retention bonuses." (Other "deferred compensations" may remain, but haven't been reported.) One wonders if AIG even asked if it's execs would agree to waivers.
Given the complexity of the scams involved, it may actually be to the advantage of the citizenry to have persons key to their creation and operation close at hand to assist with unravelling them. I'd confess to mixed emotions about whether they should be retained as employees or as "enemy terrorists" (Note: "enemy terrorists" has been shown to be so loosely defined as to include "anybody we don't like," so it's probably appropriate.)
At the very least, the specific identities, functions, and contract details should be made available to Congress, the Administration, and to NY Atty General Cuomo (who seems to have b*lls enough to prosecute if an excuse can be found).
(Another article indicated that most(?) of those receiving the largest retention bonuses may have been in the UK subsidiary of the company, and might be out of reach for Cuomo, if they can show that they didn't directly affect business in NY.)