Bailed Out

AIG Planning $100M in Bonuses

Early payout for those who accepted pay cut.

Get ready for some more backlash: AIG is planning to pay employees $100 million in bonuses Wednesday, risking reigniting populist outrage at the insurance giant that needed a massive bailout financed by American taxpayers. Only employees of the company's Financial Products division, who agreed to take a 10 percent to 20 percent pay cut from what AIG had promised to pay, will receive the money. Financial Products is the unit that created risky derivatives deals that nearly collapsed the insurer. About 97 percent of those employees agreed to forgo 10 percent of their bonus in order to get it early, while about 35 percent of former employees agreed to take a 20 percent cut to get their bonuses early. By paying them less, the company is seeking to compensate for the $26 million those employees said they'd return at the end of 2009 but did not. AIG is attempting to comply with the new demands of compensation czar Kenneth Feinberg, who wants the size of Wall Street bonuses reduced and who is demanding some bonuses from last year be repaid.