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Waxman blasts AIG retreat expenses |
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By Mike Soraghan
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Posted: 10/07/08 10:50 AM [ET] |
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AIG executives spent $440,000 on a retreat at a posh resort a week after the federal government’s $85 billion bailout of the insurer, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said Tuesday. American International Group (AIG) also continues to pay $1 million a month to an executive at the center of the company's failure, Waxman, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said. "Their executives are walking away with millions of dollars while taxpayers are stuck with billions of dollars in costs," the lawmaker added. Waxman said his staff reviewed thousands of pages of documents for Tuesday’s hearing on AIG, which is the second of at least five hearings to be held as part of an investigation into corporate misdeeds amid the credit meltdown. The site of the AIG retreat was the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, where rooms cost more than $1,000 a night. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) went through the company’s bills at the hearing. "They were getting manicure, pedicures, facials," Cummings said. "They spent $25,000 on 'leisure dining.' I don't know what that is." "That's bars," explained Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.). |
