The Wall Street Journal's Fraud Blindness

The newpaper's preposterous editorial about AIG and me.

By Eliot SpitzerPosted Monday, Aug. 10, 2009, at 2:42 PM ET

I have tried not to say too much about former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg's efforts to dance his way through his $15 million settlement with the SEC. Greenberg's troubles largely derived from a case brought by the New York attorney general's office when I was attorney general. As has been widely reported, AIG settled the case with my office in 2006 by restating its financials, paying a fine of $1.6 billion—at the time, the largest in history—and separately, by removing Greenberg as CEO. Thereafter, five people were convicted in federal court of criminal charges, and the prosecutor in that case referred to Greenberg as an "unindicted co-conspirator."