AIG's Greenberg to retire as inquiry expands

Maurice "Hank" Greenberg is stepping down as chairman of AIG this week as investigations into its business practices mount.

Maurice "Hank" Greenberg is stepping down as chairman of AIG this week as investigations into its business practices mount.

AIG said last night that former Nasdaq chairman and AIG board member Frank Zarb will assume the duties of chairman on March 30th or March 31st when Mr Greenberg returns from a two-week trip to Asia and Europe.

The announcement came after the US Securities and Exchange Commission put 10 new possibly questionable transactions under scrutiny.

Mr Greenberg (79) took the reins of the company in 1967, transforming it from an obscure seller of life insurance overseas into a market leader with nearly $100 billion in revenue and 93,000 employees worldwide.

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Mr Greenberg had already stepped down as chief executive two weeks ago as AIG became the latest insurance company to face scrutiny by regulators looking into possible abusive practices.

US investigators had focused initially on a deal done in 2000 involving New York-based AIG and General Re, a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway that may have artificially boosted AIG's reserves.

But the SEC inquiry has since expanded to cover 10 other potentially questionable transactions and possible accounting errors valued at about $1 billion, sources said.