AIG Bonus Payments Controversy - Jake DeSantis's Resignation

Jake DeSantis's Resignation

On March 24, 2009, The New York Times printed the open letter of resignation of Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of AIG’s financial products unit, to Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of AIG DeSantis stated that he and the majority of AIG-F.P. employees had nothing to do with the money-losing credit default swaps, that many of them had lost much of their savings in the form of deferred compensation invested in the capital of AIG-F.P., that he and others had agreed to work for an annual salary of $1 out of a sense of duty to the company, that AIG-F.P. employees were assured many times following the government bailout in September 2008 that AIG would honor the pre-existing retention contracts with scheduled payments to be made in March 2009, and that AIG-F.P. employees believed they were let down by Liddy's lack of support against opportunistic political pressure. He also stated he was going to donate his March 2009 payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn.