Hankering to sue, ex-AIG boss gets OK

Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, former chief executive of American International Group, may pursue large parts of his defamation lawsuit against former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a New York state appeals court has ruled.

The decision came seven months after Greenberg, 92, reached a $9 million settlement with Eric Schneiderman, the current state at- torney general, of civil accounting fraud charges first brought by Spitzer in 2005.

The complaint “adequately stated that Spitzer acted with actual malice” in criticizing Greenberg, hoping to damage Greenberg’s reputation and career while bolstering his own, Justice Cheryl Chambers wrote for a four-judge panel.

The appeals court restored some claims that Greenberg brought against his longtime nemesis.

“I look forward to proving the truthfulness of all the statements I have made about Hank Greenberg’s behavior as CEO of AIG,” Spitzer said in an e-mail. “A decade of legal obstructionism by Greenberg will not obscure the facts.”

The lawsuit arose from statements Spitzer made in TV interviews in 2012 and a book, “Protecting Capitalism Case By Case,” in 2013.

Greenberg said Spitzer falsely implicated him in fraud at AIG, and suggested he was “removed” or “thrown out” by the insurer’s board because of his role, among other allegations.

The federal appeals court in Brooklyn said Spitzer’s background as attorney general could have left people “more willing” to believe him, including when he told thenCNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo that “Hank Greenberg at AIG committed fraud. The record on that is indisputable.”