Andrew Cuomo: 73 AIG Employees Received $1 Million or More in Bonuses

American International Group, the troubled insurance giant, gave 73 employees bonuses of $1 million or more. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, whose office is investigating AIG's executive compensation, said in a letter to the House Committee on Financial Services today that AIG had distributed more than $160 million in retention bonuses (some to people who were no longer working at AIG) last Friday. "These payments were all made to individuals in the subsidiary whose performance led to crushing losses and the near failure of AIG," Cuomo wrote. "Thus, last week, AIG made more than 73 millionaires in the unit which lost so much money that it brought the firm to its knees, forcing a taxpayer bailout. Something is deeply wrong with this outcome. I hope the Committee will address it head on."

Here are six of Cuomo's discoveries:

1. The top recipient received more than $6.4 million.

2. The top seven bonus recipients received more than $4 million each.

3. The top 10 bonus recipients received a combined $42 million.

4. Twenty-two individuals received bonuses of $2 million or more, and combined, they received more than $72 million.

5. Seventy-three individuals received bonuses of $1 million or more.

6. Eleven of the individuals who received "retention" bonuses of $1 million or more are no longer working at AIG, including one who received $4.6 million.

• Read Cuomo's full letter Re: AIG 2008 Retention Bonuses.