One of the more unusual trials to come out of the 2008 financial crisis is set to begin on Monday, when a federal judge will consider whether the U.S. government's rescue of American International Group Inc was, in fact, legal. In a case that explores the limits on U.S. government power in responding to major financial crises, the trial is expected to revisit in detail the New York Federal Reserve's September 2008 decision to extend a bailout package to AIG as the insurance giant was minutes from bankruptcy.
The AIG bailout, on the heels of the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008, preceded the "too big to fail" auto and bank bailouts the federal government undertook during a U.S. financial crisis underpinned by faulty mortgage lending. The major players in that drama will be back on the Washington stage during the six-week trial: Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and former Treasury Secretaries Timothy Geithner and Henry "Hank" Paulson. A lawyer for the insurance giant's former chief executive, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, was expected to argue that the government unlawfully sought to punish AIG shareholders with excessively harsh terms. Government lawyers have defended the actions as appropriate, pointing out that the deal had been approved by the AIG board, as the company faced no other alternative to bankruptcy.
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-- Reuters