Former AIG CEO Greenberg Requests Judge be Removed from Case

Former American International Group Inc. (AIG) chief executive Maurice "Hank" Greenberg has requested that the judge overseeing a New York attorney general lawsuit against him should be removed from the case because he is biased.

Published on March 10, 2011

Greenberg in a court filing, said that New York State Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos made improper statements about the reinsurance transaction underlying the case, calling it a "criminal enterprise," and relied on inadmissible evidence.

Ramos "was not open to adjudicating this case on the face of the admissible record," lawyers for Greenberg and his codefendant, former AIG Chief Financial Officer Howard Smith, wrote in the Tuesday filing.

"The court's statements and conduct here, considered in totality, give rise to an appearance of impropriety that requires this court to recuse itself," they added.

A spokesman for Attorney General Eric Schneiderman did not have an immediate comment on the filing.

Greenberg has since 2005 defended the lawsuit originally filed by Eliot Spitzer, then New York's attorney general, and later pursued by successors Andrew Cuomo and Schneiderman.

The case involves a transaction involving General Re Corp, a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc , that boosted AIG's loss reserves by $500 million without transferring risk.

Greenberg and Smith were accused of helping structure two transactions, including General Re, to hide losses. The transactions led AIG to restate its 2001 to 2004 financial statements.