Details of the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) federal...
Details of the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) criminal charges brought against the former chief executive of Cologne Re in Dublin emerged today.
John Houldsworth has pleaded guilty to the criminal charge of conspiring with others to misstate certain financial statements.
Cologne Re is a subsidiary of General Re, part of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway group.
It is alleged that ousted AIG chief executive Maurice Greenberg was personally involved in developing sham accounts with General Re which boosted AIG's books by $500m.
Houldsworth, has entered into a settlement agreement with the SEC over the AIG affair.
The SEC complaint alleges: “This case is not about the violation of technical accounting rules.
“It involves the deliberate or extremely reckless efforts by senior corporate officials of a facilitator company (Gen Re) to aid and abet senior management of an issuer (AIG) in structuring transactions, having no economic substance, that were designed solely for the unlawful purpose of achieving a specific, and false, accounting effect on the issuer's financial statements.”
