Ex-CEO of AIG is sentenced to 4 years in prison instead of... 210 years!

On Tuesday Judge Christopher F. Droney of Federal District Court in Hartford sentenced Christian Milton of Wynnewood, Pa., a former executive at American International Group Inc, to four years in prison was also ordered to pay a $200,000 fine in U.S. District Court in Hartford, Connecticut. In fact according to sentencing guidelines, U.S. District Judge Christopher Droney could have sentenced Milton to as much as 210 years in prison.

Christian Milton was sentenced for his participation in a reinsurance deal that according to prosecutors misled AIG investors and cost shareholders more than $500 million. Last year Milton along with four former executives at Berkshire Hathaway Inc's General Re Corp business were found guilty of conspiracy and fraud as they were manipulating AIG’s financial statements. According to the official information General Re sold a finite reinsurance transaction that allowed AIG to improperly boost its loss reserves by $500 million in 2000 and 2001.

A court spokesman Thomas Carson said that Milton was scheduled to report to federal prison on March 25. Last month in the same case Ronald Ferguson, General Re's former chief executive, was sentenced to two years in prison. Elizabeth Monrad, General Re's former chief financial officer, is scheduled to be sentenced on February 12, and Christopher Garand, a former General Re senior vice president and head of finite reinsurance operations in the United States, is expected to be sentenced on March 4. No date has yet been set for sentencing of Robert Graham, Gen Re's former general counsel.

Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, a former AIG CEO, left the company soon after in 2005 Eliot Spitzer, then the New York Attorney General, filed a lawsuit against him and the company, alleging manipulation of financial results, including the General Re case. Greenberg has denied any wrongdoing and continues to fight civil charges.