Treasury brings in $5.75M from AIG stock sale

(Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images, file)

(CBS/AP) WASHINGTON - The U.S. government says it expects to receive $750 million more from the latest sale of stock held in American International Group, Inc. (AIG). The sales are part of an effort to recoup taxpayer money from the largest bailout of the 2008 financial crisis.

The Treasury Department says the banks underwriting the sale have exercised options to buy 24.6 million shares of AIG for $30.50 each. That brings the total from the fourth round of sales in AIG stock to $5.75 billion.

Treasury and the Federal Reserve stepped in with $182 billion to rescue New York-based AIG from collapse in September 2008. Treasury's portion of the bailout was $47.5 billion.

AIG is roughly half the size it was prior to the crisis. Shareholders who owned the stock prior to the crisis were wiped out. But investors who bought the stock this year in January did well. It's up 39 percent year-to-date.

Treasury says it has received $23.3 billion from four sales of AIG stock. With the latest sale, AIG still owes taxpayers about $24 billion on the original investment, according to Treasury estimates. The government has made a profit on the shares it has sold.

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[lesserof2evil]

"Shareholders who owned the stock prior to the crisis were wiped out. But investors who bought the stock this year in January did well. It's up 39 percent year-to-date."

Reverse Robin Hood working as planned. Small investors have their life savings wiped out, and the predator banksters now swoop in and feast on the profits.

Oh by the way, let's cut taxes for these vulture capitalists since they are so good for the US economy.