There's plenty of blame to go around in the AIG disaster, but a huge rashers certainly go to Joseph Cassano, head of the Financial Products Division that wrote $562 billion risky and dangerous unhedged credit default swaps. The office was located in London to take advantage of the country's lax financial oversight laws, and lavishly rewarded for their efforts:
According to The Times, compensation ranged from $423 million to $616 million for Cassano's group. That would be about 20% of the unit's revenue, meaning Cassano was being paid like a hedge fund manager.
Cassano was forced out of AIG in March of last year:
Cassano, who has homes in London and Connecticut, was forced to retire from AIG on March 31. Critics say despite the fact that the company is hemorrhaging money and being kept alive with taxpayer cash, Cassano has been allowed to keep his windfall.
In addition, according to Cassano's signed retirement agreement obtained by ABC News, he was to be paid $1 million a month by AIG for "consulting services" through the end of last year.
AIG would have been a smoking hole had taxpayers not started bailing it out last year. It would not have had the money to pay anybody anything if it had gone bankrupt.
rest http://firedoglake.com/2009/03/16/exec-who-brought-aig-down-still-living-high/
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