Mar 20, 2009 8:57 pm US/Eastern
He's Back: Spitzer Offers Insight Into AIG
Disgraced Ex-Governor Says He's Ready To Help, Ready To Get People To Understand Insurance Giant's Logic
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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N.Y. Gov. Eliot Spitzer announces his resignation from office March 12, 2008.
CBS
Eliot Spitzer is speaking out, one year after he resigned in disgrace as New York's governor.
He's taking on an old financial adversary in what some say is his attempt at a comeback.
"I failed in a very important way in my personal life, and I paid a price for that," Spitzer said in a broadcast interview.
It was just over a year ago that Spitzer resigned from the most powerful political position in New York, brought down by a prostitution scandal.
While he said he's still contrite, it also seems Spitzer is back for a second act.
The former "Sheriff of Wall Street" has been taking shots at an old target, insurance giant AIG. When Spitzer was New York's attorney general, he battled with the company, forcing the resignation of its then CEO.
"I said AIG is the center of the web. The financial tentacles of this company is through every investment bank," Spitzer said.
Now AIG is caught in a controversy over bailouts and bonuses, but in an interview on CNN Spitzer said the bonuses are not the heart of the problem. It's AIG's payouts to other financial institutions.
"Bonuses is a real issue. They touch us viscerally. The real structure at issue is the dynamic between AIG and counterparties," Spitzer said.
"When AIG originally received $80 billion, virtually all of it flowed to counterparties -- $12 billion into Goldman Sachs."
After dropping out of the public eye for a year, Spitzer seems determined to be heard.
"If I am asked and I can contribute to a very important conversation, I will do that as well," he said. "It is our right and obligations as citizens."
Spitzer was not charged in the prostitution scandal. The owner and manager of the escort service received prison sentences.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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