Our favorite financial reporter has weighed in again on the AIG litigation (Starr v. U.S.), seeking just compensation from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims for former shareholders of the insurance giant AIG which was taken over by Uncle Sam as part of the feds’ bailout, when the poop hit the fan back in 2008. As part of that bailout, Uncle Sam took some 80% of AIG’s stock and using it without the shareholders’ consent purported to act on behalf of the about-to-be-bailed-out company. Gretchen Morgenson, Fresh Doubt In the Bailout Of A.I.G., N.Y. Times, Dec. 21, 2014, at p. 1 (Business Sec.).
It turns out that some of the lawyers for the defendant Fed thought, before the lawsuit was filed, that “The government is on thin ice and they know it.” Now, their e-mails have been discovered and placed in evidence.
Otherwise, the article contains no heretofore unrevealed bombshells, but it makes clear why the feds fought tooth and nail to keep the plaintiffs and their lawyers from discovering some the e-mails authored by defendants’ lawyers. But the government put on some of its own lawyers on the stand as witnesses for the defense, and the jig was up — there went the government’s claim that this material was privileged.
If you are into this controversy, this is interesting stuff that you ought to peruse. See http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/business/fresh-doubt-over-the-bailout-of-aig.html?ref=business&_r=0
A court decision is expected early next year. So stay tuned.