March 22, 2009
-
$100,000 donation to the Democrats from AIG
AIG’s $100G donation to Democrats was unknown to Gov. Paterson, he says
BY LARRY MCSHANE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, March 21st 2009, 11:16 PMClick Here to see the news article
ARTICLES
Gonzalez: Looting goes far beyond bonuses
N.Y.ers sick and tired of fat cats ‘robbing people blind’
Daly: And these little AIG piggies want more
N.Y. Dems got fat ‘bonus’ from insurer, too
Stay way outta sight, jittery AIG execs told
Gov. Paterson stuck to his guns Saturday, insisting he knew nothing about a $100,000 donation from AIG to the state Democratic Party days before his office helped save the insurance giant.
State Republicans charged the Democrats with stonewalling an investigation into the Aug. 29 donation, uncovered last week by The Associated Press.
In the first week of September, Paterson launched negotiations to save the financially strapped company. GOP officials questioned whether there was a quid pro quo.
“It looks increasingly like there was pay-to-play methods used here,” said Assemblyman Greg Paul, a Putnam County Republican. “We as New Yorkers need a full investigation.”
Paterson spokeswoman Marissa Shorenstein reiterated Saturday that the governor was unaware of the donation until Thursday, and she declined to comment further.
Paterson said last week that his motivation in the AIG talks was to save New York jobs. State officials helped the company reach a loan deal with the Federal Reserve that kept AIG solvent.
The company is currently under fire for taking an $85 billion federal bailout and then paying its executives $165 million in bonuses.
State Democratic Party spokeswoman Carly Lindenauer has echoed Paterson’s version of what happened, as have officials at American International Group.
