ALBANY, N.Y. — Eliot Spitzer has a few words to say about the AIG bonus brouhaha: I told you so.
The former New York governor battered American International Group with charges of corruption long before his own dizzying downfall in a prostitution scandal. AIG eventually said it would pay $1.64 billion to resolve deceptive-accounting allegations.
Spitzer has used this latest episode to strike his old populist, Sheriff of Wall Street themes and, just maybe, mend his reputation. But critics contend that he bears a share of the blame for the insurance giant’s historic near-collapse.
Spitzer said the AIG bonus issue is “penny ante” compared with the billions of the insurer’s bailout money funneled to bad banks. He said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner owes America an explanation, quickly.
“We pursued AIG and Wall Street’s structural failures in a way that others shied away from because it was politically unpalatable for them to address those issues,” Spitzer told WNYC radio host Brian Lehrer on Thursday. “Now it is the flavor of the month. Everybody is jumping up and down serving subpoenas, beating their chests trying to be tougher than the next person.”
