Unstructured Finance

Goldman, AIG and the government renew their friendship

Scanning Goldman Sachs’s newly published interactive annual report on Monday, Unstructured Finance had to do a double-take upon seeing American International Group highlighted as a client success story.

Yes, that’s right. AIG.

Goldman’s site features a 3-minute, 47-second video with two investment bankers, Devanshu Dhyani and Andrea Vittorelli, talking about their work on various AIG deals to help repay the U.S. government.

It also has photos of bankers around the globe who were involved with AIG stock sales, stock buybacks and assets sales, including Chris Cole, co-chairman of investment banking; Yan Liu, Ed Byun Dan Dees and Phyllis Luk, bankers based in Hong Kong; and Michael Tesser and Terence Lim, bankers based in New York.

“The most important aspect of success here was the full repayment of the U.S. government – $182 billion of funds committed to stabilizing AIG at the height of the financial crisis – not only repaid back in a matter of years but repaid back at a profit of $23 billion to the US taxpayer,” says Dhyani. “I think that’s a tremendous achievement for AIG, for people who are involved in this process.”

Jim Millstein, a former Lazard banker who oversaw the government’s stake in AIG at the U.S. Treasury Department until 2011, also contributed a quote to the site.

Phil Angelides gives up his “secret formula”

By Matthew Goldstein and Jennifer Ablan

Phil Angelides, the former chairman of the commission set up by Congress to look into the causes of the financial crisis, is no longer part of a group seeking to turn a profit by investing in distressed mortgages.

A representative for Angelides emailed a statement to Reuters saying the former California state treasurer stepped down as executive chairman of the upstart firm, Mortgage Resolution Partners, on Jan. 27. Angelides, as we reported today, stepped down about two weeks after our exclusive story about his role with the firm was published by Reuters.

Angelides’ role sparked controversy because the firm touted its political connections as part of its “secret formula” for negotiating deals to buy distressed mortgages.

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