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| AIG reportedly pulls out of HMB Ritz plans By Clay Lambert [ clay@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Thursday, October 9, 2008 10:54 AM PDT AIG - the insurance giant at the center of a worldwide financial storm - has reportedly canceled plans for a retreat at the posh Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, that was originally scheduled for next week. Several news agencies reported on the planned retreat that was reportedly offered as a reward for independent insurance agents. Today, ABC news quotes company spokesman Nicholas Ashooh saying the retreat is off in light of recent events. Ashooh did not immediately return calls seeking confirmation. A resort spokeswoman would neither confirm nor deny that AIG had planned a retreat, nor whether it had called it off. On Tuesday, federal officials mulled loaning the company another $37.8 billion - on top of an $85 billion tab taxpayers pumped into AIG only days before - in an effort to keep the behemoth solvent. The company courted the ire of federal officials last week when it spent $440,000 on a similar luxury retreat at the St. Regis Resort and Spa in Monarch Beach, a junket company CEO Edward Libby characterized as "standard practice in our industry" in a report on ABC news. |