Outrage Against AIG Bonuses Continues

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- "It seems pretty outrageous that the people who got AIG in trouble are now getting million dollar bonuses," says Peter Meyers.

He and Phyllis Goldfarb are law professors at George Washington University law school. They don't buy the argument that AIG had to pay those bonuses because it was contractually obligated.

"This is a time for thinking outside the box to see what else you can do so that this outrageous and inequitable situation isn't carried forward," says Goldfarb.

AIG paid 73 people bonuses of over 1 million dollars. Eleven of them don't even work for the company anymore, and several worked at the Financial Products unit, which engaged in the risky trading practices that helped cause the meltdown.

AIG paid a total of $165 million in bonuses. Though thats only 9 percent of the $173 billion in government bailout money AIG received, many Americans say those bonuses should have been spent elsewhere.

Some members of congress want to tax most of that bonus money, but some local contract attorneys say it may cause valuable employees to leave AIG, which is now owned by the government and the taxpayers.

Good riddance, says local architect Robert Cvejanovich, "Chances are there are a bunch of wall street people who need jobs and could better fix this mess."

In response to the outrage, some AIG employees who received a large bonus are returning the money to the company at the request of the CEO.

We may also soon learn who received bonuses at Merrill Lynch.
Today, a judge ordered Bank of America to disclose information about bonuses given at Merrill Lynch, just before the bank bought the brokerage company.