EXCLUSIVE: AIG CEO defends holiday, slams "lynch mob" attacks

By Adam Tanner

DUBROVNIK, Croatia (Reuters) - Wearing flip-flops, khaki shorts and a green polo shirt, the new chief executive of bailed-out insurer American International Group Inc says he's getting a lot of work done from his massive villa overlooking the Adriatic.

"People criticize me for being on vacation. I actually started work a week before I was actually supposed to," Robert Benmosche told Reuters in an interview. "I do have conference calls every day, I have all my information sent here. I can work here as well as in the office in New York."

Benmosche, 65, previously the CEO of MetLife Inc, the largest U.S. life insurer, came out of retirement to become AIG's CEO on August 10.

His holiday, which started only a few days after he took up the job at AIG, has raised some eyebrows in the United States, where financial executives have faced unrelenting criticism over high compensation and anything that smacks of a privileged lifestyle during the economic crisis.

Executives at companies bailed out by the government, like AIG, have had to be particularly careful.

Benmosche said that he regularly keeps up with AIG business via telephone and the Internet, helped by the villa's array of satellite technology, and had three conference calls scheduled for Wednesday.

He had returned to the villa in a city famed for its medieval walls and crystal clear waters because he said he wanted to oversee the harvest of his vineyards to the north and spend time with his children and grandchildren.

He plans to return to work at AIG's offices in New York after Labor Day on September 7.

PASSION FOR CROATIA

He makes no apologies for his passion for Croatia, including his palatial villa with 12 bathrooms and his vineyards on the Peljesac Peninsula about a two hours drive north of Dubrovnik. Benmosche has no previous family links to Croatia; his ancestors hail from Lithuania and Poland.

"When you come here, all of a sudden you appreciate the world you live in," he said.

He bought the stone house (then a "complete wreck" in his words) in 2001 for about $1 million, and has since spent several times that amount in rebuilding the house and gardens. He used many imported materials, including Italian tiles, and added Viking stoves, an 18th century French tapestry, a well-stocked wine cellar and a huge 1922 Persian rug.

The terraces stretch across 160 or 170 feet of sea front, where he keeps a 135 horsepower boat parked in front.

"Every bathroom is like a piece of art," he said while showing off his master bathroom with his wife Denise. "Women go wild when they walk in here."

The room had an oversize wall-to-wall mirror, Jacuzzi, large glass-enclosed shower and plenty of natural light.