AIG Proves Corporate America Has No Shame

AIG execs planned SECOND resort trip after bailout
By Helen Kennedy, Daily News Staff Writer / October 8, 2008

Even as the White House on Wednesday branding it "despicable" for bailed-out AIG to spend $443,000 on a swank company junket, honchos were preparing another lavish retreat.

About 50 American International Group managers are set to attend next week's retreat at the luxurious Ritz-Carlton spa resort in California's Half Moon Bay.

The insurance giant said the meeting is to educate 150 independent agents who sell AIG coverage to high-end clients.

"They are top business producers, and they are vital to the company," AIG spokesman Joe Norton said. "If a company is not selling, it's not profitable."

The cost of the planned retreat was unknown. Rooms at the Ritz run from $300 to $1,200 a night - extra for a dip in the "Roman-style" mineral baths.

Last month, just days after the government saved AIG from bankruptcy with $85 billion in loans, the company paid for a week-long corporate junket at another California resort. The tab included $10,000 in bar bills and $23,000 in spa treatments.

"It's pretty despicable," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. "The President did not want to move forward on this rescue package ... to help executives go to a spa."

AIG CEO Edward Liddy said the junket was for independent life insurance brokers, not execs.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Liddy said AIG is "reevaluating the costs of all aspects of our operations."

Update: The second trip was cancelled.

Source / New York Daily News

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