NY AG says time for ex-AIG CEO to answer questions

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has tried to block a request by the former head of American International Group Inc (AIG.N) to delay a deposition on three-year-old allegations of financial misconduct.

Former AIG CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg should be deposed "soon as possible," Cuomo said in a memorandum filed in the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

"(He) has had three years to obtain evidence to prepare, and the time has come for him to sit for a deposition."

Cuomo's predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, filed civil charges against Greenberg in 2005 alleging financial and securities fraud and various violations of the insurance and securities laws. Some charges were later dropped.

Greenberg, who ran AIG for nearly four decades, left the company that same year. AIG paid more than $1 billion to settle the matter in 2006.

Greenberg had sought to delay giving a deposition, arguing he needed papers that AIG refused to turn over to him before he could answer any questions.

He won the right to see certain AIG documents when a New York State Appeal Court ruled in his favor on Thursday.

Cuomo said: "Greenberg is 82 years old, and his recollection is not going to be any better a year or two from now ...

"Despite his protestations that he is not prepared to sit for a deposition, Greenberg and his spokesmen persist in issuing statements to the press ..."

But Greenberg's lawyer, Lee Wolosky, said no one was more eager to get the process moving than Greenberg.

"For three years, Mr. Greenberg has been asking AIG to provide him the documents he's entitled to, so that he can properly defend himself against the allegations that remain in this case," he said, noting that Greenberg won that right with Thursday's ruling.

(Reporting by Lilla Zuill, editing by Leslie Gevirtz and Andre Grenon)