Tux of Borg

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Judge-signs-...f-13838271.html Judge signs order to protect Madoff investors and moves case to bankruptcy court NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal judge has signed an order saying investors who may have been duped in one of Wall Street's biggest frauds need the protection of the Securities Investor Protection Act. Judge Louis Stanton also directed that proceedings to liquidate the assets of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC be moved to bankruptcy court. The order was signed Monday afternoon after the Securities Investor Protection Corp. submitted papers asking for the protection for investors. Stanton assigned Irvin Picard to preside as trustee over the liquidation. The order came just days after federal prosecutors charged Madoff with securities fraud, saying he had admitted squandering nearly $50 billion from investors in a massive Ponzi scheme.

The NSA was listening to Americans long before the Patriot Act.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...&refer=home AIG Said to Offer Retention Payment to Bigger Group of Workers Email | Print | A A A By Hugh Son Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc., the insurer under fire for paying 168 executives not to quit after a government takeover, is giving retention awards to at least 2,000 more employees, according to a person familiar with the matter. The “retention bonus” equals as much as a year’s salary and recipients were ordered to keep the payment secret, said the person, who declined to be named because the plan was labeled confidential. Awards were offered to as much as 10 percent of staff at businesses that are for sale, including plane-leasing and insurance units in the U.S. and overseas, the person said. AIG said in September that 130 executives will get awards, just days after the New York-based firm got a government rescue package that now totals $152.5 billion. AIG Chief Executive Officer Edward Liddy told Congress last week the payments will go to 168 people, with some getting as much as $4 million. “If it has the money to give these disguised bonuses to thousands of its employees, then I think it is time for Mr. Liddy to write a check to the federal government repaying the money it took,” said Representative Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, in a statement yesterday. Nicholas Ashooh, an AIG spokesman, said life insurance unit chiefs were allowed to give retention awards to as much as 10 percent of their staffs, and selected “closer to 7 or 8 percent” of workers. There are about 37,000 employees in AIG life units around the world, Ashooh said. A typical payment is equal to about six months of salary, he said. Maintaining Value “It’s not a senior executive program, it’s for the employees running the businesses day to day, around the world,” Ashooh said yesterday. “We want to maintain the value of the businesses so we get the most value and repay the government.” Ashooh said there “may be” retention programs for other AIG subsidiaries that are for sale. The insurer’s plane-leasing unit isn’t part of the life insurance program, Ashooh said. Units that AIG is trying to sell employ about 70,000 people, which means that as many as 7,000 could receive payments, the person said. Cummings said he felt deceived by the company. “Liddy told me in writing that his company was awarding 168 retention payments,” he said. “There is no way around that figure. I cannot imagine Mr. Liddy accidentally overlooking a few thousand employees targeted to receive these funds.” Liddy is trying to sell AIG businesses to repay loans included in the government rescue which entitles the U.S. to a 79.9 percent stake. He said in a letter last week to Cummings that payments to executives are to help maintain the value of units for sale. Demanding Secrecy The insurer requires recipients to keep the payments confidential, according to a contract obtained by Bloomberg News. Exceptions included financial and legal advisers, as well as immediate family. If awardees tell other outsiders about the existence of the program, they will forfeit future payments, the contract says. “All of our efforts with respect to our retention program have been made in the light of day,” Liddy said in the Dec. 5 letter to Cummings, who serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Cummings has criticized the retention pay, saying AIG misled taxpayers who now own most of the company and that it’s unnecessary to give so much cash to retain people when job markets are weak. U.S. finance companies have announced 220,506 job cuts this year through November, placement firm Challenger Grey & Christmas Inc. said in a Dec. 3 report. ‘Failing Institution’ Assistant Treasury Secretary Neel Kashkari, who supervises the U.S. financial rescue program, has called some of AIG’s bonuses “excessive for a failing institution.” In one instance, an AIG manager of an overseas unit told his superior that the payments weren’t needed because employees were unlikely to leave, the person said. The manager was overruled, said the person. Most of the managers will get the first installment this month or in January and must stay through 2009 or early 2010 to get the full amount, the person said. The 168 managers in the first round get awards of 100 percent to 300 percent of their annual salaries, the person said. Those payments were approved by an AIG compensation committee two days after the company’s Sept. 16 bailout, the insurer has said. That rescue included an $85 billion loan that saved AIG from bankruptcy, shortly after the government allowed investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. to fail. The insurer’s rescue package was expanded last month after continuing losses from credit-default swaps, the contracts protecting against losses on mortgage bonds, and other bets made on U.S. housing. The company has posted four straight quarterly losses totaling about $43 billion. AIG, under pressure from lawmakers to limit executive compensation, said on Nov. 25 that Liddy, 62, will receive $1 in salary through 2009. The company said it will freeze salaries and forgo 2008 bonuses for seven top leaders.

Article is up at CNN.com.

The department I work at is seeing no shortage of applicants. I heard we are hiring 4 people for every 10,000 applications we receive. The trouble we run into is finding good, qualified applicants. If we invite 50 people to test for the department, only 25 will pass the police officer exam. The rest we'll lose through the pych exam, background check, poly, and interviews. You also have to keep in mind that this is a very long process. From the time I submitted my application till the date i was hired was about 1 year. Alot of departments also require college and/or military which I'm not sure if alot of union employees have. So yes, there is a shortage of police officers, but there aren't alot of people out their qualified to take them.

The bothersome part of the article is the S.E.C investigated him years ago and found nothing wrong. Perhaps if the newspapers weren't focused on Britney Spears, maybe they would have broke this story a long time ago.

I wish i made $90,000 a year in Law Enforcement. Then again, we aren't unionized and don't have to deal with the problems caused by them.

From my understanding, the automakers don't have enough money to file for chapter 11. It's expensive to restructure and they would need the bailout money for that. With chapter 11, the UAW labor contracts and other liabilities will be discharged by the courts.

Let them file for chapter 11, like they should have done in the first place.

There are bill collectors out that that collect judgments for civil suits. You might want to look into getting one and having them add something to his credit report.

A month after the election and Palin is still a hot topic. She was the fastest rising Google search in 2008. She is in Kanye West's new music video. And she has Opera upset because she won't go on her show.

This album really grows on you the more you listen to it.

I'm still young and chasing tail. I'll get back to you in 10 years and let you know how it turned out.

So much for the playoff guarantee!

That's right.... get pumped!

Stl scores! Mia 13 Stl 12 12:19 in the 4th

Rams are driving and are in the redzone. 4th quarter 13:09 Mia 13 Stl 9

Indy just scored. Ind 10 Cle 6

Rams are in Field Goal range. Mia 13 Stl 9

As it will be the only one Dick's ever won.

push off!

From around the league.... Ind 3 Cle 6 Bal 20 Cin 3 Mia 13 StL 9

I've got a feeling.... that Buffalo is going to the Super Bowl!

NFL Playoff Update: IND 3 CLE 6 BAL 6 CIN 0 MIA 7 STL 6

NFL Playoff Update: IND 3 CLE 6 BAL 6 CIN 0 MIA 7 STL 6