A senior executive of embattled insurer American International Group Inc. has reportedly reached a deal with investigators to testify in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
The executive, Joseph H. Umansky, president of AIG Reinsurance Advisors, recently agreed to the deal, The Wall Street Journal reported on its web site late Friday. The newspaper attributed its information to unnamed people familiar with the case.
Umansky's attorney as well as a spokesman for AIG had declined to comment, the Journal said.
According to the report, authorities want Umansky to offer details on AIG's reinsurance transactions with the General Re unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., as well as its ties to Union Excess Reinsurance Co. and Richmond Insurance Co., both offshore insurers. Umansky is believed to be the first AIG executive to agree to such a deal.
AIG's longtime CEO and chairman, Maurice Greenberg, is a focal point of the investigation, despite being forced to step down as head of the company in March.
The SEC, the New York attorney general's office, the New York Insurance Department and the Justice Department have been examining Greenberg's role in initiating a transaction with General Re, a reinsurance subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., that allowed AIG to bolster reserves artificially against future claims _ an important measure of an insurer's strength.
AIG said in late March that it did not account correctly for that transaction and others.
