To be even more specific, was forced out of the company at the beginning of 2005 in a totally abusive prosecution by NY AG Eliot Spitzer, who the last time I checked completely failed to get a single big white collar crime conviction.

I find it difficult to believe there's no connection between the government's trashing of AIG's top level management, including their required vetting of the new head, and the failures in risk management that followed.

Were AIG's troubles not well underway by 2005 even if they weren't public knowledge yet? Also if memory serves he was forced out over allegations of illegality in a shady deal AIG made to secretly borrow money from a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway to make it look like AIG was in a stronger financial position than they actually were. Also Wikipedia says he was forced out by the AIG board.