American International Group, which stoked popular outrage for distributing large retention bonuses funded by a federal bailout, has once again given taxpayers something to grumble about.

The troubled company now says it paid employees $454 million in bonuses for work performed in 2008 – a massive increase from the $120 million it claimed to have paid out in March.

The company revealed this in response to detailed questions from Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings.

Cummings told Politico, which first reported the story, that he was shocked to see that the number had nearly quadrupled this time. "I simply cannot fathom why this company continues to erode the trust of the public and the US Congress, rather than being forthcoming about these issues from the start," he told Politico.

These numbers are in addition to the $165 million in retention bonuses paid to employees of a division of the company known as AIG Financial Products. The disclosure of those payments triggered a political wildfire earlier this year.

Earlier this year, chief executive officer Edward Libby told a House financial services subcommittee that the amount was "in the range of $9 million", while AIG spokesman Nick Ashooh said a few days later it was $120 million.

Now with the total pushing half a billion, AIG defended the revised figure in a statement.

"Congress asked us for additional information regarding all performance compensation paid to employees around the world," AIG spokeswoman Christina Pretto said. "We have provided details on some 374 variable performance plans for work done by lower level employees last year. These are not new payments and are not part of AIG's corporate executive bonus pool, which we reported in March was approximately $120 million."

Many of the employees who received portions of the $454 million in bonuses had nothing to do with the financial collapse of the company. The bonuses were given in much smaller amounts this time around, averaging between $5,000 and $50,000 across the entire company.

Ashooh, the AIG spokesman, said that the $454 million dollar estimate came as a result of a change in the wording of questions posed to the company.