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Cuomo has a strategy for bonus return

Marketplace Staff Mar 24, 2009
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Cuomo has a strategy for bonus return

Marketplace Staff Mar 24, 2009
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TEXT OF STORY

Bob Moon: The secretary of the Treasury and the chairman of the Fed face a round of questioning before a House oversight panel today, and one lawmaker says the two “have much to clarify for the American public.”

Issue One: The big bonuses that went to those executives at AIG. Turns out 9 of the top 10 bonus recipients at the struggling insurance giant have agreed to give back their take. That’s according to the New York Attorney General. As Tamara Keith reports, Andrew Cuomo is reporting some success in his fight to recover the money.


Tamara Keith: Of the $165 million in bonuses handed out earlier this month, Cuomo says employees have now agreed to return about $50 million of it.

The New York Attorney General and his staff started with employees who got the largest bonuses and have been working their way down the list. In a statement, Cuomo thanked the AIG employees who are returning the cash for setting an example for the rest of the company, saying they’ve done the right thing in what is now a new era of corporate and individual responsibility.

This morning, both Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will be on Capitol Hill. They’ll testify before the House Financial Services Committee about the AIG bailout and what has been done to monitor the company since then. Geithner will no doubt be grilled about what he knew about the bonuses and when.

In Washington, I’m Tamara Keith for Marketplace.

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