Saturday, March 21, 2009

AIG: Using your bailout $ to sue the Goverment

Your bailout dollars at work:
A.I.G. SUES GOVERNMENT FOR RETURN OF $306 MILLION IN TAX PAYMENTS

The New York Times

"While the American International Group comes under fire from Congress over executive bonuses, it is quietly fighting the federal government for the return of $306 million in tax payments, some related to deals that were conducted through offshore tax havens.

A.I.G. sued the government last month in a bid to force it to return the payments, which stemmed in large part from its use of aggressive tax deals, some involving entities controlled by the company’s financial products unit in the Cayman Islands, Ireland, the Dutch Antilles and other offshore havens.

A.I.G. is effectively suing its majority owner, the government, which has an 80 percent stake and has poured nearly $200 billion into the insurer in a bid to avert its collapse and avoid troubling the global financial markets. The company is in effect asking for even more money, in the form of tax refunds. The suit also suggests that A.I.G. is spending taxpayer money to pursue its case, something it is legally entitled to do. Its initial claim was denied by the Internal Revenue Service last year."
AIG is using our bailout money to sue the government for a larger tax refund. And it is legally entitled to do so.

Biggest. Clusterfuck. Ever. Seriously, if anyone ever had any doubt that reality has trumped satire, this is it. You can't make shit like this up. Talk about truth being stranger than fiction!

What exactly our Amba$$ador to the Ma$ter$ of the Univer$e, Timothy Geithner, and our deer-in-the-headlights Congress going to do about this? US taxpayers now own 80% for the so-called "American International Group," but apparently the remaining 20% wants to sue the larger shareholders, to get back some tax money.

Another unbe-fucking-lievable wrinkle in the Cratering Clusterfuck that is the AIG scandal.

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