The insurance conglomerate A.I.G. waited until late in the day before Thanksgiving to announce an outrageous move that has the Internet abuzz. The firm, which is 80% owned by U.S. taxpayers, has had a long-running legal dispute with its former chief executive, Maurice (Hank) Greenberg, who had run afoul of authorities before he departed. This afternoon, the day before a national holiday, AIG announced that it has kissed and made up with Greenberg. Among other things, AIG (that's us, folks) will pay $150 million in legal fees run up by Goldberg and the firm's former chief financial officer.

This is just one of many AIG outrages. While Hank Paulson, former head of Goldman Sachs, was treasury secretary, the government pumped an initial $85 billion into AIG, although it had dubious authority to do so. Of that sum, $13 billion went right out the back door to Goldman Sachs. Paulson should be under investigation for that caper -- ditto Tim Geithner, then head of the New York Federal Reserve. Don't get your hopes up.

AIG is a company that the Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Justice and New York Attorney General have said engaged in fraud and bid-rigging.

A group of attorneys, mainly in San Diego, has filed suit against AIG in Los Angeles, attempting to stop the company from engaging in fraudulent and unfair business practices in California. The lawyers have made a new filing showing that "AIG is held together by a Gordian knot" of interlocking support, interdependent guarantees, and reinsurance agreements among its various entities. Evidence of more of these incestuous ties was put into evidence today."AIG has remained a going concern based on artificial income, phantom assets, and perverse incentives," says the filing.