Former AIG Chairman Settles Case With New York Attorney General
As co-counsel, Skadden advised Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, the former chairman and CEO of American International Group, Inc., on the highly successful conclusion of his 12-year battle with the Office of the New York State Attorney General. The action, commenced in 2005 by then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer under New York's Martin Act, originally sought over $5.5 billion in damages and permanent injunctive relief. Over the course of time and two interlocutory appeals to the New York Court of Appeals, most of the attorney general's case was dismissed or withdrawn, such that by the time trial commenced, the attorney general sought just $50 million and a permanent bar from acting as an officer or director of a public company and in the securities industry. Having agreed to mediation midtrial, the attorney general accepted a settlement payment of $9 million with no injunctive relief of any kind.