Udall Issues Ultimatum to AIG: Give Bonuses Back or We'll Find a Way to Take Them Back

Sen. Udall (center) also met in his DC office today with members of the NM Municipal League  (l to r): Farmington City Councilor Dan Darnell, Village of Taos Ski Valley Mayor Pro-Tem Barb Wiard, Hurley Mayor Ray Baca, Las Cruces City Councilor Dolores Connor, Portales Mayor Orlando Ortega and WHPacific Associate Director for Aviation Dumas Slade

Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) today joined a group of his Senate colleagues to send a message to AIG executives who took $165 million in taxpayer bailouts as bonuses: “Give the bonuses back, or we’ll find a way to take them back.” Sounds like they mean business. The American people certainly hope they do.

Udall said in a written statement, “It’s beyond outrageous for AIG executives to receive ‘performance-based awards’ when it was American taxpayers who prevented them from going bankrupt. Our message is simple. If AIG executives refuse to do the right thing and surrender their taxpayer funded bonuses, we will find a way to get them back.”

In a letter to AIG Chairman and CEO Edward Liddy, Udall and the group of Senators demanded the bonuses be repaid. Click for the (pdf) of the letter including a list of the Senators who signed it. Excerpt:

For a company that would not exist anymore but for a $170 billion taxpayer funded rescue, it is simply morally unacceptable to spend $165 million on bonus payments, and especially offensive to spend $450 million over the next two years rewarding the employees that helped fuel the nation’s financial crisis.  Given the fact that it was the employees in this unit that brought your firm to the brink of bankruptcy and caused such havoc in the world, rewarding them is not only morally reprehensible, but entirely indefensible on any business grounds.  It is the grossest perversion of the idea of a “performance bonus” imaginable. In America, we believe in rewarding success.  AIG is attempting to reward the most extreme failure.

I'm trying to obtain a list of the other Senators who signed this letter. I'll keep you posted. I've now obtained the names of the 43 other Senators who signed the letter and have included them on the pdf of the letter linked above. Note that Sen. Jeff Bingaman is not listed as a signer of the letter.

Photo courtesy of Sen. Udall's office. Click on image for larger version.