Siskinds LLP files class action lawsuit by Canadian investors against AIG

An Ontario law firm has filed a Cdn$550-million class action against the U.S. American International Group Inc. (AIG), AIG Financial Products Corp. (AIGFP) and various directors and officers, alleging in a statement of claim that disclosures made by the American company caused massive losses to Canadian investors.
The allegations have not been proven in court. A court must certify the class action before it can proceed.
The class action is brought on behalf of all Canadians who acquired AIG securities during the period between Nov. 10, 2006 and Sept. 16, 2008.
“The AIG class action arises out of AIGFP’s credit default swaps and the crippling decline in AIG’s stock price when the true effect of those credit default swaps became known to the investing public,” Siskinds LLP states in an online post about the case. “The AIG disclosures out of which the class action arises are currently the subject of investigation by law enforcement authorities, and are alleged in the class action to have caused massive losses to Canadian investors.”
AIG’s Financial Products group wrote more than [US]$500 billion notional in credit default swaps through June 2008, A.M. Best said in a release.
Former AIG chief executives Martin J. Sullivan and Robert B. Willumstad, former chief executive of the Financial Products Unit Andrew Cassano, former CFO Steven Bensinger and current and former members of AIG’s board of directors are named defendants.