Cassano "earned" $280 million in cash (more than AIG chief executives) and for every dollar his financial products unit made, Cassano and other top executives made 30 cents.

Cassano was fired on February 29, 2008 after the unit lost $11 billion, but he was allowed to keep $34 million in bonuses and was kept on as an AIG consultant at a salary of $1 million per month.

When AIG chief executives Michael Sullivan and Robert Willumstad were asked why they had kept Cassano on board as a "consultant" they sited the need to "retain the 20-year knowledge of the transactions."

"It is hard for us, without being flippant, to even see a scenario within any kind of realm that would see us losing one dollar in any of these transactions."--August 2007