House Democratic leaders send out a daily list of talking points on the biggest stories in the capital, and today’s memo mentions the burgeoning scandal over AIG’s retention bonuses:
As a result of contracts entered into before government rescue funds were approved last year — so before limits were in place — AIG has paid out $165 million in bonuses to top executives.
AIG has committed to Treasury that they will look how to repay taxpayers for the retention payments.
A House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on Wednesday morning will look into problems at AIG.
That’s all true … but the reality of the situation goes deeper than this week’s $165 million. It’s not even clear that AIG’s 2009 retention bonuses would be affected by the executive compensation limits that were added to the economic stimulus law.
Those limits don’t apply to pay arrangements negotiated before last month, and it appears that AIG has already inked agreements on some of its 2009 incentive payments.
