AIG's Greenberg to Retire, Probe Expands NEW YORK (Reuters) - Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, who turned American International Group Inc. into a global insurance powerhouse, is retiring before the week's end as the company contends with regulatory investigations over its business practices. As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission put 10 new possibly questionable transactions under scrutiny, AIG said late on Monday that former Nasdaq chairman and AIG board member Frank Zarb will assume the duties of chairman either March 30 or March 31 when Greenberg returns from a two-week trip to Asia and Europe. Greenberg, 79, took the reins of the company in 1967, transforming it from an obscure seller of life insurance overseas into a market leader with nearly $100 billion in revenue. The SEC has subpoenaed 12 executives of AIG in an expanding probe of the insurer, sources close to the case said on Monday. AIG declined to discuss the substance of the investigation. The SEC also declined to comment. Government investigators had focused initially on a deal done in 2000 involving New York-based AIG and General Re, a unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., that may have artificially boosted AIG's reserves, the sources said. But the SEC probe has since expanded to cover 10 other potentially questionable transactions and possible accounting errors valued at about $1 billion, the sources said. Also involved in the inquiry are the U.S. Justice Department, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, New York state insurance regulators and law firms hired by the company and its independent directors, the sources close to the case said. Greenberg in recent years had become the industry's unofficial leader. His pre-eminence was sealed in 2001, as AIG bought life insurer American General for $23 billion and Greenberg led insurers to the White House to lobby President Bush for federal support on future terror insurance claims in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks. The New Yorker reached the top with a steely glare and a soldier's vocabulary, inspiring fear and respect in equal measure. Known to all as "Hank," after baseball Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg, he insisted on profits from selling policies, rather than relying on investment returns, like other firms. Spitzer praised AIG's board before the company officially announced the changes, saying it had moved quickly to address problems uncovered by the probe and is cooperating fully with regulators. "While there is a long way to go before this investigation is complete, the wise actions of the AIG board will help set this investigation on a path toward resolution," Spitzer said in a statement. AIG in the past week fired Michael Murphy, an executive at its American International Co. unit in Bermuda, for failing to cooperate with investigators, an AIG spokesman said on Monday.     Continued ... Quelle "AIG's Greenberg to Retire, Probe Expands" : reuters.com Main page for "AIG's Greenberg to Retire, Probe Expands"