2005年NPR美国国家公共电台四月-Scandal Dogs AIG

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These are turbulent times for one of the world's largest and most powerful insurance companies. American International Group is under investigation¹ over a questionable² transaction that involves a company owned by Warren Buffet³. And last week, the company acknowledged that it was also guilty of a broad range of improper⁴ accounting⁵ procedures dating back as much as 14 years. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports this scandal is occurring at a tightly managed company that has long been seen as one of the bluest blue chip stocks.

Wall Street liked AIG, and it liked the aggressive results-oriented style of its longtime chief Hank Greenberg. During his nearly four decades at AIG's helm, Greenberg turned AIG into a global power house. One way he did that was through his pioneering work in fields like reinsurance, essentially⁶ a way of insuring big insurance companies. Donald Light is an analyst⁷ at the consulting firm Celling Communications.

There's no question Mr. Greenberg has put his stamp of personality on that company. It's a big, tough, aggressive and in many ways very successful company. Although the story is now unfolding as to, you know, how much of that success was real and how much of that success was really wallpaper. And this is gonna have to be reversed.

Greenberg was forced from office last month. His lawyers didn't return phone calls seeking comment about his role at AIG. In recent months, New York officials have been investigating a four-year-old transaction involving a company owned by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway. AIG has admitted that the transaction was disguised as a reinsurance deal, but its real purpose was to beef up AIG's reserves. Last week, AIG said there were other improper activities as well. Among other things, the company acknowledged that it had bought reinsurance services from Bermuda- and Barbados-based companies that it controlled itself. Again, Donald Light.

This means that AIG was buying reinsurance helping⁸ its financial statements from itself, which is basically you take the five-dollar bill out of your right-hand pocket and put it into your left-hand pocket, you're not actually better off economically.

One reason AIG was able to get away with transactions like that may have had a lot to do with Greenberg's top-down management style. Jeffrey Sonifeld, dean of the Yale School of Management says Greenberg built up a highly complicated management structure with numerous overlapping⁹ divisions and subsidiaries.

The fundamental underling complexity¹⁰ of Greenberg's businesses makes it very hard for any expert analysts¹¹ to actually disentangle what's going on in there. And that's what has people worried.

But Sonifeld says nobody really complained about the complexity. With Greenberg's strong reputation and the company's history of profit-making, AIG's board seemed to ask few questions. Once the parameters¹² of the scandal became apparent, the board forced Greenberg out of the company and is said to be cooperating with authorities. Donald Light of Celling Communications says the investigation could pose some difficult questions for AIG.

The question is how many of these misleading and/or illegal transactions were there, was there a pattern. All those questions are unfolding. I think AIG is facing some very very rough waters ahead.

AIG has extensive ties to Wall Street firms and investors¹³, among them Warren Buffet. Although Buffet hasn't been accused of anything, he will be questioned this month by investigators¹⁴ about the 2001 transaction. Buffet is a man with a longtime reputation for integrity. Now that the scandal has touched even him, a lot of people on Wall Street are wondering how much farther AIG's troubles will spread.

Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.

This is morning edition from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.