property and casualty business in 1996, Salomon Brothers in 1997, culminating with Citigroup in 1998. Shawn Tully, “The Jamie Dimon Show,”
154 Removing Sullivan, installing Willumstad: Liam Pleven, Randall Smith, and Monica Langley, “AIG Ousts Sullivan, Taps Willumstad as Losses Mount,”
154 in a small office in Shanghai: Shelp,
154 market value of $300 million: Carol J. Loomis, “AIG: Aggressive. Inscrutable. Greenberg,”
154 with a market value of just under $80 billion: At the end of AIG’s second quarter (August 2008), it had over $1 trillion in assets and about $78 billion in shareholders equity. Matthew Karnitschnig, Liam Pleven, and Peter Lattman, “AIG Scrambles to Raise Cash, Talks to Fed,”
155 Greenberg’s upbringing: Reports conflict on Greenberg’s age at the time of his father’s death. This author has chosen to go with the age listed in Shelp,
155 Greenberg talked his way into a job as a $75-a-week insurance underwriting trainee: “On a whim, he wandered into the offices of Continental Casualty in lower Manhattan in 1953 and talked his way into the office of the personnel director. Greenberg thought the man was excessively rude, so he stormed into the office of a vice president and told him that Continental’s personnel director was a ‘jerk.’ He was rewarded with a job as a $75-a- week underwriting trainee. Before the end of the decade, he was Continental’s assistant vice president in charge of accident and health insurance.” See Devin Leonard, “Greenberg & Sons,”
155 C.V. Starr’s story and AIG: Ibid.; Monica Langley, “Eastern Front: AIG and Fired Chief Greenberg Cross Paths Again—in China.”
156 “Sit down, Gordon, and shut up”: Shelp,
156 He drove himself relentlessly:
156 He showed little affection for anyone: As he told Cindy Adams, “You learn fast who your friends are. Some I considered close became a lot less close. They separated quickly. Many you think loyal are suddenly not and you find out during adversity… . But Snowball gives me extra love. She sleeps with me. Puts her head on my shoulder.” Cindy Adams, “Ex-AIG Executive on Friends, Family,”
156 Jeffrey, Evan Greenberg: Albert B. Crenshaw, “Another Son of CEO Leaves AIG,”
157 AIG agreed to pay $10 million: According to an SEC press release: “AIG developed and marketed a so- called ‘non-traditional’ insurance product for the stated purpose of ‘income statement smoothing,’
157 AIG agreed to pay $126 million to settle: “In consenting to settle the Commission’s action and related, criminal charges, AIG has agreed to pay disgorgement, plus prejudgment interest, and penalties totaling $126,366,000.”
157 deferred prosecution agreement: Pamela H. Bucy, “Trends in Corporate Criminal Prosecutions Symposium: Corporate Criminality: Legal, Ethical, and Managerial Implications,”
157 “Dr. Strangelove of Derivatives”: Lynnley Browning, “AIG’s House of Cards,”
158 Warren Buffett called them weapons of mass destruction: In the past he had referred to them as “time bombs” and “financial weapons of mass destruction.” Clare Gascoigne, “A Two-Faced Form of Investment—the Culture of Derivatives,”
158 Sosin fled to AIG: Sosin signed a joint venture agreement with AIG on January 27, 1987, and shortly recruited the ten men who would join his team, which already included Drexel’s Randy Rackson and Barry Goldman as partners. See Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Brady Dennis, “The Beautiful Machine,”
158 traders got to keep some 38 percent of the profits: Ibid. AIGFP reportedly kept 38 percent of the profits, with AIG retaining 62 percent. The
158 “You guys up at FP ever do anything to my Triple-A rating”: Ibid.
158 formed a “shadow group”: Ibid. Randall Smith, Amir Efrati, and Liam Pleven, “AIG Group Tied to Swaps Draws Focus of Probes,”
159 BISTRO and JP Morgan: Gillian Tett, “The Dream Machine,”
159 “How could we possibly be doing so many deals?”: Brady Dennis and Robert O’Harrow Jr., “Downgrades and Downfall,”
160 “It is hard for us, without being flippant”: Ibid.
160 “does not rely on asset-backed commercial paper”: “American International Group Investor Meeting—
