Letter to CEO of AIG - Nubblies.net Forums

DJ FC · 03-25-2009, 04:07 PM

DEAR Mr. Liddy,

It is with deep regret that I submit my notice of resignation from A.I.G. Financial Products. I hope you take the time to read this entire letter. Before describing the details of my decision, I want to offer some context:

I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage.

After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.

I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.

You and I have never met or spoken to each other, so I’d like to tell you about myself. I was raised by schoolteachers working multiple jobs in a world of closing steel mills. My hard work earned me acceptance to M.I.T., and the institute’s generous financial aid enabled me to attend. I had fulfilled my American dream.

I started at this company in 1998 as an equity trader, became the head of equity and commodity trading and, a couple of years before A.I.G.’s meltdown last September, was named the head of business development for commodities. Over this period the equity and commodity units were consistently profitable — in most years generating net profits of well over $100 million. Most recently, during the dismantling of A.I.G.-F.P., I was an integral player in the pending sale of its well-regarded commodity index business to UBS. As you know, business unit sales like this are crucial to A.I.G.’s effort to repay the American taxpayer.

The profitability of the businesses with which I was associated clearly supported my compensation. I never received any pay resulting from the credit default swaps that are now losing so much money. I did, however, like many others here, lose a significant portion of my life savings in the form of deferred compensation invested in the capital of A.I.G.-F.P. because of those losses. In this way I have personally suffered from this controversial activity — directly as well as indirectly with the rest of the taxpayers.

I have the utmost respect for the civic duty that you are now performing at A.I.G. You are as blameless for these credit default swap losses as I am. You answered your country’s call and you are taking a tremendous beating for it.

But you also are aware that most of the employees of your financial products unit had nothing to do with the large losses. And I am disappointed and frustrated over your lack of support for us. I and many others in the unit feel betrayed that you failed to stand up for us in the face of untrue and unfair accusations from certain members of Congress last Wednesday and from the press over our retention payments, and that you didn’t defend us against the baseless and reckless comments made by the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut.

My guess is that in October, when you learned of these retention contracts, you realized that the employees of the financial products unit needed some incentive to stay and that the contracts, being both ethical and useful, should be left to stand. That’s probably why A.I.G. management assured us on three occasions during that month that the company would “live up to its commitment” to honor the contract guarantees.

That may be why you decided to accelerate by three months more than a quarter of the amounts due under the contracts. That action signified to us your support, and was hardly something that one would do if he truly found the contracts “distasteful.”

That may also be why you authorized the balance of the payments on March 13.

At no time during the past six months that you have been leading A.I.G. did you ask us to revise, renegotiate or break these contracts — until several hours before your appearance last week before Congress.

I think your initial decision to honor the contracts was both ethical and financially astute, but it seems to have been politically unwise. It’s now apparent that you either misunderstood the agreements that you had made — tacit or otherwise — with the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, various members of Congress and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York, or were not strong enough to withstand the shifting political winds.

You’ve now asked the current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. to repay these earnings. As you can imagine, there has been a tremendous amount of serious thought and heated discussion about how we should respond to this breach of trust.

As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house.

Many of the employees have, in the past six months, turned down job offers from more stable employers, based on A.I.G.’s assurances that the contracts would be honored. They are now angry about having been misled by A.I.G.’s promises and are not inclined to return the money as a favor to you.

The only real motivation that anyone at A.I.G.-F.P. now has is fear. Mr. Cuomo has threatened to “name and shame,” and his counterpart in Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, has made similar threats — even though attorneys general are supposed to stand for due process, to conduct trials in courts and not the press.

So what am I to do? There’s no easy answer. I know that because of hard work I have benefited more than most during the economic boom and have saved enough that my family is unlikely to suffer devastating losses during the current bust. Some might argue that members of my profession have been overpaid, and I wouldn’t disagree.

That is why I have decided to donate 100 percent of the effective after-tax proceeds of my retention payment directly to organizations that are helping people who are suffering from the global downturn. This is not a tax-deduction gimmick; I simply believe that I at least deserve to dictate how my earnings are spent, and do not want to see them disappear back into the obscurity of A.I.G.’s or the federal government’s budget. Our earnings have caused such a distraction for so many from the more pressing issues our country faces, and I would like to see my share of it benefit those truly in need.

On March 16 I received a payment from A.I.G. amounting to $742,006.40, after taxes. In light of the uncertainty over the ultimate taxation and legal status of this payment, the actual amount I donate may be less — in fact, it may end up being far less if the recent House bill raising the tax on the retention payments to 90 percent stands. Once all the money is donated, you will immediately receive a list of all recipients.

This choice is right for me. I wish others at A.I.G.-F.P. luck finding peace with their difficult decision, and only hope their judgment is not clouded by fear.

Mr. Liddy, I wish you success in your commitment to return the money extended by the American government, and luck with the continued unwinding of the company’s diverse businesses — especially those remaining credit default swaps. I’ll continue over the short term to help make sure no balls are dropped, but after what’s happened this past week I can’t remain much longer — there is too much bad blood. I’m not sure how you will greet my resignation, but at least Attorney General Blumenthal should be relieved that I’ll leave under my own power and will not need to be “shoved out the door.”

Sincerely,

Jake DeSantis

Ugly Bastard · 03-25-2009, 04:30 PM

Smart PR move by this guy. I'm sure his next job will come with fantastic pay.

THEINCREDIBLEdork · 03-25-2009, 04:35 PM

cliffs plz?

Beebs · 03-25-2009, 04:38 PM

The public at large, led by the media, will be far too stupid to grasp anything that foes against this absurd witchhunt.

TwoBlackEyes · 03-25-2009, 04:59 PM

Good riddance.

"The latest bailout came as AIG admitted to having just posted the largest quarterly loss in American corporate history — some $61.7 billion. In the final three months of last year, the company lost more than $27 million every hour. That's $465,000 a minute, a yearly income for a median American household every six seconds, roughly $7,750 a second."

The Big Takeover : Rolling Stone

DJ FC · 03-25-2009, 05:00 PM

Rolling Stone is garbage.

US GDP is on the decline does that mean I can blame you, TBE, because you are a part of the US?

This guy's desk was PROFITABLE.

TwoBlackEyes · 03-25-2009, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by George W. Bush

Rolling Stone is garbage.

US GDP is on the decline does that mean I can blame you, TBE, because you are a part of the US?

This guy's desk was PROFITABLE.

See the other thread, where I explain that making millions while losing billions isn't actually profit. And there's no fucking way this guy worked at AIG for years without any kind of involvement in credit default swaps and the like.

And, again, if a large portion of my company acts recklessly and fucks the company over enough that we go bankrupt, we ALL lose our jobs. Not just the fuckups. It's the real world. That's how it works.

And if for some reason we manage to stave off bankruptcy and I am BLESSED enough to still have a job at all, I betcha they're gonna be cutting back on xmas bonuses.

Beebs · 03-25-2009, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoBlackEyes

See the other thread, where I explain that making millions while losing billions isn't actually profit. And there's no fucking way this guy worked at AIG for years without any kind of involvement in credit default swaps and the like.

And, again, if a large portion of my company acts recklessly and fucks the company over enough that we go bankrupt, we ALL lose our jobs. Not just the fuckups. It's the real world. That's how it works.

And if for some reason we manage to stave off bankruptcy and I am BLESSED enough to still have a job at all, I betcha they're gonna be cutting back on xmas bonuses.

What the hell do you not understand? This is AIG, not a fucking mom and pop grocery stre. Care to explain to me how this guy, working in a completely profitable sector, being profitable himself, and making money, just happened to wonder over into a department that is likely in a different city if not country and caused the collapse of the world economy?

DJ FC · 03-26-2009, 03:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoBlackEyes

And there's no fucking way this guy worked at AIG for years without any kind of involvement in credit default swaps and the like.

You don't know what trading desks are like. It's almost certain that if he was an equities and commodities trader and not a CDS trader that he was trading equities and commodities and not CDSs. What is so hard to understand about that?

TwoBlackEyes · 03-26-2009, 02:09 PM

Ok, let me explain this again:

Say you are a teller at Chase Bank. You obviously have little or no say in the company, and have no power to make or break anything. You are sharp and a good worker though and you saved your company money over the years by preventing fraud by being thorough and diligent.

You did everything right and are an awesome person. Your boss tells you that you are getting a massive raise! Whoo!

But, as it turns out, the head of Chase, who you have never met nor will ever meet invested a bunch of money under the table with Bernie Madoff, and every mortgage that was issued by your bank in the last year was given to illegal aliens with $3/hour tomato-picking jobs and are all in foreclosure.

Suddenly, Chase is bankrupt! They are going to have to close unless someone comes and buys them out. Let's call this buyout company Obama Unlimited.

Now, you were promised a raise by your old boss. PROMISED. But the new management announces pay cuts across the board! OH NOES!

That's how it happens. And yeah, I'm crying buckets of tears for this superman worker who is SO VALUABLE. But that doesn't mean he's entitled to ANYTHING.

But if this douche actually made money, he can stroll into any other job and make money there instead. So why is he writing whiny open letters instead of getting that better job? Because of some professed loyalty to the AIG brand? BULL. SHIT. I would put money on the fact that this guy can't GET another job. If there were all these job offers just throwing themselves at these guys 6 months ago, they shouldn't have any trouble finding a position today, right?

f3lix · 03-26-2009, 02:13 PM

I bought AIG stock after it collapsed. Time for recovery, baby! If gov't is going to take over this country, I'm going to succeed with it.

Ugly Bastard · 03-26-2009, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoBlackEyes

So why is he writing whiny open letters instead of getting that better job?

I mean... is the value he derived from writing that letter really not apparent to you?

DDTempest · 03-26-2009, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ugly Bastard

I mean... is the value he derived from writing that letter really not apparent to you?

I would balance TBE's post and his letter at about equal in terms of personal value derived from "writing."

DJ FC · 03-26-2009, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoBlackEyes

But if this douche actually made money, he can stroll into any other job and make money there instead. So why is he writing whiny open letters instead of getting that better job? Because of some professed loyalty to the AIG brand? BULL. SHIT. I would put money on the fact that this guy can't GET another job. If there were all these job offers just throwing themselves at these guys 6 months ago, they shouldn't have any trouble finding a position today, right?

Politics, unfortuneately, is important. And once the media and the public latch onto something it can be very hard to shake it... This guy could be a stellar trader, but he will forever be "the AIG guy who took the bonus..."

It just sucks.

03-25-2009, 04:07 PM	#1 (permalink)
DJ FC MURICAN Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Virginia Posts: 5,136 Internets: 253094	Letter to CEO of AIG DEAR Mr. Liddy, It is with deep regret that I submit my notice of resignation from A.I.G. Financial Products. I hope you take the time to read this entire letter. Before describing the details of my decision, I want to offer some context: I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage. After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself. I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down. You and I have never met or spoken to each other, so I’d like to tell you about myself. I was raised by schoolteachers working multiple jobs in a world of closing steel mills. My hard work earned me acceptance to M.I.T., and the institute’s generous financial aid enabled me to attend. I had fulfilled my American dream. I started at this company in 1998 as an equity trader, became the head of equity and commodity trading and, a couple of years before A.I.G.’s meltdown last September, was named the head of business development for commodities. Over this period the equity and commodity units were consistently profitable — in most years generating net profits of well over $100 million. Most recently, during the dismantling of A.I.G.-F.P., I was an integral player in the pending sale of its well-regarded commodity index business to UBS. As you know, business unit sales like this are crucial to A.I.G.’s effort to repay the American taxpayer. The profitability of the businesses with which I was associated clearly supported my compensation. I never received any pay resulting from the credit default swaps that are now losing so much money. I did, however, like many others here, lose a significant portion of my life savings in the form of deferred compensation invested in the capital of A.I.G.-F.P. because of those losses. In this way I have personally suffered from this controversial activity — directly as well as indirectly with the rest of the taxpayers. I have the utmost respect for the civic duty that you are now performing at A.I.G. You are as blameless for these credit default swap losses as I am. You answered your country’s call and you are taking a tremendous beating for it. But you also are aware that most of the employees of your financial products unit had nothing to do with the large losses. And I am disappointed and frustrated over your lack of support for us. I and many others in the unit feel betrayed that you failed to stand up for us in the face of untrue and unfair accusations from certain members of Congress last Wednesday and from the press over our retention payments, and that you didn’t defend us against the baseless and reckless comments made by the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut. My guess is that in October, when you learned of these retention contracts, you realized that the employees of the financial products unit needed some incentive to stay and that the contracts, being both ethical and useful, should be left to stand. That’s probably why A.I.G. management assured us on three occasions during that month that the company would “live up to its commitment” to honor the contract guarantees. That may be why you decided to accelerate by three months more than a quarter of the amounts due under the contracts. That action signified to us your support, and was hardly something that one would do if he truly found the contracts “distasteful.” That may also be why you authorized the balance of the payments on March 13. At no time during the past six months that you have been leading A.I.G. did you ask us to revise, renegotiate or break these contracts — until several hours before your appearance last week before Congress. I think your initial decision to honor the contracts was both ethical and financially astute, but it seems to have been politically unwise. It’s now apparent that you either misunderstood the agreements that you had made — tacit or otherwise — with the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, various members of Congress and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York, or were not strong enough to withstand the shifting political winds. You’ve now asked the current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. to repay these earnings. As you can imagine, there has been a tremendous amount of serious thought and heated discussion about how we should respond to this breach of trust. As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house. Many of the employees have, in the past six months, turned down job offers from more stable employers, based on A.I.G.’s assurances that the contracts would be honored. They are now angry about having been misled by A.I.G.’s promises and are not inclined to return the money as a favor to you. The only real motivation that anyone at A.I.G.-F.P. now has is fear. Mr. Cuomo has threatened to “name and shame,” and his counterpart in Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, has made similar threats — even though attorneys general are supposed to stand for due process, to conduct trials in courts and not the press. So what am I to do? There’s no easy answer. I know that because of hard work I have benefited more than most during the economic boom and have saved enough that my family is unlikely to suffer devastating losses during the current bust. Some might argue that members of my profession have been overpaid, and I wouldn’t disagree. That is why I have decided to donate 100 percent of the effective after-tax proceeds of my retention payment directly to organizations that are helping people who are suffering from the global downturn. This is not a tax-deduction gimmick; I simply believe that I at least deserve to dictate how my earnings are spent, and do not want to see them disappear back into the obscurity of A.I.G.’s or the federal government’s budget. Our earnings have caused such a distraction for so many from the more pressing issues our country faces, and I would like to see my share of it benefit those truly in need. On March 16 I received a payment from A.I.G. amounting to $742,006.40, after taxes. In light of the uncertainty over the ultimate taxation and legal status of this payment, the actual amount I donate may be less — in fact, it may end up being far less if the recent House bill raising the tax on the retention payments to 90 percent stands. Once all the money is donated, you will immediately receive a list of all recipients. This choice is right for me. I wish others at A.I.G.-F.P. luck finding peace with their difficult decision, and only hope their judgment is not clouded by fear. Mr. Liddy, I wish you success in your commitment to return the money extended by the American government, and luck with the continued unwinding of the company’s diverse businesses — especially those remaining credit default swaps. I’ll continue over the short term to help make sure no balls are dropped, but after what’s happened this past week I can’t remain much longer — there is too much bad blood. I’m not sure how you will greet my resignation, but at least Attorney General Blumenthal should be relieved that I’ll leave under my own power and will not need to be “shoved out the door.” Sincerely, Jake DeSantis
	The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.

03-25-2009, 04:35 PM	#3 (permalink)
THEINCREDIBLEdork Emperor Meow Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 9,350 Internets: 290966	cliffs plz?
	#YOLO

03-25-2009, 05:00 PM	#6 (permalink)
DJ FC MURICAN Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Virginia Posts: 5,136 Internets: 253094	Rolling Stone is garbage. US GDP is on the decline does that mean I can blame you, TBE, because you are a part of the US? This guy's desk was PROFITABLE.
	The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.

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03-25-2009, 04:30 PM	#2 (permalink)
Ugly Bastard Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 13,643 Internets: 247330	Smart PR move by this guy. I'm sure his next job will come with fantastic pay.

03-25-2009, 04:38 PM	#4 (permalink)
Beebs Poor Sport Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Indianapolis / Middlebury / Long Lake Posts: 5,306 Internets: 127341	The public at large, led by the media, will be far too stupid to grasp anything that foes against this absurd witchhunt.

03-25-2009, 04:59 PM	#5 (permalink)
TwoBlackEyes Been told twice Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 312 Internets: 1299	Good riddance. "The latest bailout came as AIG admitted to having just posted the largest quarterly loss in American corporate history — some $61.7 billion. In the final three months of last year, the company lost more than $27 million every hour. That's $465,000 a minute, a yearly income for a median American household every six seconds, roughly $7,750 a second." The Big Takeover : Rolling Stone

03-26-2009, 02:09 PM	#10 (permalink)
TwoBlackEyes Been told twice Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 312 Internets: 1299	Ok, let me explain this again: Say you are a teller at Chase Bank. You obviously have little or no say in the company, and have no power to make or break anything. You are sharp and a good worker though and you saved your company money over the years by preventing fraud by being thorough and diligent. You did everything right and are an awesome person. Your boss tells you that you are getting a massive raise! Whoo! But, as it turns out, the head of Chase, who you have never met nor will ever meet invested a bunch of money under the table with Bernie Madoff, and every mortgage that was issued by your bank in the last year was given to illegal aliens with $3/hour tomato-picking jobs and are all in foreclosure. Suddenly, Chase is bankrupt! They are going to have to close unless someone comes and buys them out. Let's call this buyout company Obama Unlimited. Now, you were promised a raise by your old boss. PROMISED. But the new management announces pay cuts across the board! OH NOES! That's how it happens. And yeah, I'm crying buckets of tears for this superman worker who is SO VALUABLE. But that doesn't mean he's entitled to ANYTHING. But if this douche actually made money, he can stroll into any other job and make money there instead. So why is he writing whiny open letters instead of getting that better job? Because of some professed loyalty to the AIG brand? BULL. SHIT. I would put money on the fact that this guy can't GET another job. If there were all these job offers just throwing themselves at these guys 6 months ago, they shouldn't have any trouble finding a position today, right?

03-26-2009, 02:13 PM	#11 (permalink)
f3lix Gangnam Style Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: DH's Massage Parlor Posts: 6,383 Internets: 213510	I bought AIG stock after it collapsed. Time for recovery, baby! If gov't is going to take over this country, I'm going to succeed with it.