Many top AIG executives agree to return bonuses

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo hopes more AIG employees will return their bonuses, after 15 of the top 20 bonus recipients at the troubled insurer agreed to return their money. In total, American International Group Inc. employees have agreed to return about $50 million of the $165 million in bonuses awarded earlier this month by the insurer, Cuomo’s office said. At most, Cuomo said his office could hope to recoup $80 million of the bonuses—roughly the amount paid out to AIG employees in the U.S. The bonuses were paid out to employees of the financial products division, a global unit that issued derivatives called credit default swaps that helped sink AIG as a whole last year. The agreement to return the money followed a firestorm of criticism and some arm-twisting from New York’s attorney general. AIG has come under heavy criticism because the bonuses were given to employees after the company received $170 billion in government bailout money.