After Bailout, AIG Execs Head to California Resort
Rescued by Taxpayers, It's Party Time with $23,000 in Spa Charges
By Brian Ross and Tom Shine | ABCNews.com | October 7, 2008

Less than a week after the federal government committed $85 billion to bail out AIG, executives of the giant AIG insurance company headed for a week-long retreat at a luxury resort and spa, the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, California, Congressional investigators revealed today.

"Rooms at this resort can cost over $1,000 a night," Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) said this morning as his committee continued its investigation of Wall Street and its CEOs.

AIG documents obtained by Waxman's investigators show the company paid more than $440,000 for the retreat, including nearly $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals and $23,000 in spa charges.

"Their getting their pedicures and their manicures and the American people are paying for that," said Cong. Elijah Cummings(D-MD).

AIG CEO Robert Willumstad and former CEO Martin Sullivan are both scheduled to testify today.

Waxman says there is evidence the two men changed the bonus schedule once the company began to post losses, so that executives under the "Senior Partners Plan" would continue to make multi-million dollar salaries.

"Mr. Sullivan and the other top executives should have had their bonuses slashed due to poor performance," said Waxman.

Congressional investigators also raised question of whether AIG executives sough to "cook the books" and hide negative information from outside auditors.

On Dec. 5, 2007, Waxman said, CEO Sullivan told investors "we are confident in our marks and the reasonableness of our valuation methods."

Documents obtained by the committee show that one week earlier, auditors Pricewaterhouse Cooper had "raise their concerns with Mr. Sullivan…informing him that PWC believed that AIG could have a material weakness relating to the risk management of these areas."