Manicures, Pedicures and $85 Billion, Oh My!

You run one of the world’s largest and most respected insurance companies into the ground to the point that the government has to fork over $85 billion in taxpayer money just to stave off bankruptcy, so what do you do next? Go to Disney World? How about a week-long vacation at the posh St. Regis Monarch Beach Hotel in beautiful Dana Point, Calif., where rooms start at $425 a night?

If you answered the latter, congratulations, you could be an executive at American International Group.

On Tuesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform committee grilled Fat Cats from the failed insurance giant about their place in the current financial mess, we learned that the Gordon Gekko’s of Oliver Stone’s Wall Street are still alive and well.

While the American people are suffering under the weight of record foreclosures, plummeting home values, skyrocketing commodity prices, disappearing retirement accounts and a frightening uncertainty about the future of the American economy; AIG bigwigs were busy getting caviar and champagne treatment less than a week after avoiding bankruptcy by swindling the U.S. government out of $85 billion.

Call it a giant $440,000 slap on the back for a job not-so-well done.

"They were getting their manicures, their facials, their pedicures and their massages, while the American people were footing the bill," chided Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD.)

But manicures, pedicures and facials were not the only luxury indulgences AIG executives decided to put on the taxpayers tab.

They spent $1,400 at the resort’s salon; another $147,000 on banquets; $7,000 on green fees and other golfing expenses; $23,000 for spa services; $200,000 on hotel rooms (no $425 a night rooms available?).

To make matters worse, on Wednesday it was announced that the Federal Government would be giving AIG an additional $37.8 billion

"Average Americans are suffering economically. They're losing their jobs, their homes and their health insurance... Yet less than one week after the taxpayers rescued AIG, company executives could be found wining and dining at one of the most exclusive resorts in the nation," Henry Waxman (D-CA), head of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, scolded.

So what should taxpayers expect on their dime after the massive $700 billion bailout passed just last week? A new airplane for the CEO of Bear Stearns? How about an all-expense paid vacation to Europe for the failed executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ? Why not a $20 million bonus to the crooks that caused the collapse of Merrill Lynch?

I have a better idea. How about some jail time?

Source Washington Post:

And just last week, about 70 of the company's top performers were rewarded with a week-long stay at the luxury St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif., where they ran up a tab of $440,000. At a House committee hearing yesterday, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) showed a photograph of the resort, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean, and reported expenses for AIG personnel including $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals and $23,000 for the spa.

Unless the above article is already copyrighted, this article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License, EIC grants permission to use this article in whole or in part provided attribution is given, preferably in the form of a link back to EconomyInCrisis.org.

MORE OF TODAY'S NEWS | Comment on this Article | Read Comments

Donate Today