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In a country where even a 1 year old baby can own a gun, what else can you expect?

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...963FA5CA3AC%7D

AIG CEO, some staff get death threats over bonuses
Liddy wants identities of recipients kept private to keep employees safe
By Alistair Barr & Sam Mamudi, MarketWatch
Last update: 4:41 p.m. EDT March 18, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- American International Group Inc. Chief Executive Edward Liddy and employees at the insurer's troubled derivatives unit have received death threats amid a national furor over big bonuses the company recently paid.

Liddy said Wednesday he has asked most recipients of more than $160 million in bonuses to repay at least half the money. But he warned that staff may resign when they return the cash, making it more difficult to unwind AIG's remaining $1.6 trillion book of derivatives.

He also said the identities of the bonus recipients should not be made public, because that could put employees in further danger. He read one of the threats, which said AIG staff and their families should be executed "with piano wire."

Liddy's predicament shows how dramatically public sentiment has turned against the current system of executive compensation in the United States -- especially at companies like AIG, which have been bailed out with tens of billions in government money.

"Physical threats to yourself and your family ... are condemnable and no one should be going through that," said Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., ranking member of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government-Sponsored Enterprises.

Other politicians called such threats "despicable" and apologized to Liddy and thanked him for taking the reins at AIG after the insurer almost collapsed in September.

Lynch mob

However, some legislators continued to hammer Liddy over the bonuses.

Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., compared the payments to the crew and captain of a sinking ship "reserving the lifeboats."

"That amounts to violation of trust in the people who invested in this company," he said. "It's arrogance and I think it's probably illegal."

Liddy, who is being paid a salary of $1 at AIG, repeated that he wasn't around when the bonus agreements were set up in early 2008 and stressed again that he would have written the contracts differently.

"I take offense sir," he said. "Offense was intended," Lynch countered.