Bailed-out AIG to consider joining lawsuit against US government, lawmakers fume

American International Group Inc, which was bailed out by the US government, is now planning to sue the government over the rescue.

Directors of the insurance giant are expected to consider joining a suit that argues the bailout - US pledges totaling over $182 billion led to shortchanging the shareholders of the insurer.

According to John C Coffee, a Columbia Law School professor and expert on corporate governance, it took "a lot of gall to say the government that bailed you out did not pay you enough".

AIG has plenty of work on its hands at present over rebuilding its corporate image following the company becoming a public example of excessive risk-taking, which nearly destroyed the global financial system.

The company has meanwhile, been thanking  taxpayers for the government bailout in the fall of 2008 when it teetered on the verge of collapse.

AIG took $125 billion of the pledged money in the complex, multi-step rescue by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and recently repaid all the funds, plus interest and dividends.