the companies board removed hank greenberg. because of the silliness that is attached to this claim pm people saying i did this out of personal animosity. i don't know if this will make hank feel better or not, i have no emotions about in one way or the other. maria, he is one in a litany of corporate executives that defrauded the market. we prosecuted them, the charge that his motive is flawed is the refuge of the guilty. >> the only problem -- i have a problem -- >> let me finish this off. hank greenberg was thrown out by his own company's board. >> under pressure from you. some people say that the collapse of aig falls at your feet, because hank would not have allowed that craziness to go on. >> let's deal with reality here. hank greenberg's accounting was fraudulent. >> you can't say fraudulent because there is no indictment, you can't just throw around the word fraud. >> here is the federal judge's opinion that he was a conspirator? >> the answer is we cleaned up the company, got it into leadership, and the southern distric

the board removed hank greenberg.im people saying that i did this out of personal-- >> that's right. >> eliot: can i tell you something very simple, i don't know if this will make hank feel better or not. i have no emotions about him one way or another. maria, he's one in a litany of corporate executives who frauded the market. >> in all these charges you throw away so cavalier, there is no evidence to support that, eliot. >> eliot: maria, look, i hate to deal withsay this, deal with facts. this is the federal court opinion. 39 hanks. hank greenberg coconspirator in fraud. facts matter i know this is cable tv but factors matter. hank greenberg committed fraud. >> there is no evidence of that. there are no charge of fraud. >> eliot: you can say it over and over. here is the 39-page federal opinion. have you read this opinion? >> eliot. >> eliot: i'm waiting for an answer. >> what was your question. >> eliot: have you read this opinion. >> yes, i have much. more than i want to read. >> eliot: does this opinion say that

hank greenberg himself paid a $15 million fine for fraud! bartiromo's default position is protect the financial industry. protect the people who are in power. protect the establishment. and this guy who actually tried to do something about fraud you must attack him! you must destroy him. you know to protect the establishment. this is exactly what's wrong with the establishment media and cnbc in particular. all they do is protect the guys wh

pointed out to me in this blog that there is a lawsuit that's been going on for years against hank greenberg and g. regarding the financial panic and there and there are there implicated as having conducted insurance. and financial statements shenanigans and there are e-mails by eliot spitzer the new york attorney general at the time who had prosecuted the case supposedly done by private email address that are coming to light and a judge is about to rule and these e-mails could exculpate hank greenberg. and this whole libel or thing could at least in part be kind of a push back because there's kind of a there's a shift occurring if i'm reading this correctly on wall street where we have a separation of the big banks from the administration they're not as tight as they used to be and you have warren buffett coming out kind of bearish on treasuries and talking down about muni bonds so things are a little bit different right now that's interesting so you think that this library scandal could be a bargaining chip for washington to use in and balancing out something like this a i.g. lawsuit that

couple things, just to be clear, are you saying the only reason that elliott spitzer went off hank greenberg was because of a personal vendetta? >> i wasn't there to talk about this, but it wasn't that he was hammering his fist on the desk or the table siting allegations of wrong doing or corruption, his tirade was much more personal in nature, and it left me with an uneasy feeling there was a personal reasons driving him at the time. i lost track of the case until just recently when i read about the issue of the offline e-mails that the greenberg camp has been attempting to obtain. some would say that there is nothing really new. dick grasso, they were certainly targets of spitzer as well. did you hear him talk about them specifically? >> i didn't hear him speak about grasso or white head. i did not think that the missile had yet been launched this conversation was exclusively about the greenberg's and their companies. for a guy that was self proclaimed -- >> we reached out to eric schniderman, and he would not comment. his office is fighting a judge's order. what do you know about the e-ma

. >> the documentary on hank greenberg, the baseball player, and it talked about him moving to detroit. and in the anti-semitism he had a tough time. what was the reason for henry's feelings? did he ever change his mind? guest: that is a good question. the topic of anti-semitism is an important one and curious one. as i often say, i think the normal expectation is that anti-semitism is a reaction err political doctrine that people son the right tend to embrace. ford's case is different, however, and the more interesting for it. ford's anti-semitism did not come from any personal problem or any personal encounter as far as i can tell that he had with jewish people. but it came from a kind of ideological direction. ironically it was rooted in his progressivism, political progressivism. he was an old fashioned pop lift who honored ordinary working citizens and hated wall street. he hated banks, he hated big financial in the united states. if i was put it this way, he was a capitalist who hated capital. a message that the populist party was preaching. but like many of the populists before

. >> and my interview with eliot spitzer,ly ask him to respond to allegations that hank greenberg wasated by personal reasons. >> welcome back, we get to the close with about 10 minutes left. and we talked a lot about all of the programs fating the markets, the european debt crisis, the low down in the economy, the u.s. equity market held up pretty well until last week and we had six consecutive down days. we thought maybe the air was coming out of that balloon until today, and now we're back again. >> there are so many huge numbers being thrown around. a week and a half ago we heard $9 billion was possible, and then $7 billion. all of these high numbers being thrown around, $5 billion is not as bad. with these high numbers, the expectations were beat -- the numbers beat the expectations. >> it's tough to tell sometimes what really is the focus for the markets, if it is europe. are they getting their act together? now we're focussing on earnings. we have a lot of big numbers next week, so it will be interesting if we get follow through. and what's the one fly in the ointment for today

i had a conversation last week with ellioiot spitzer, and he k bringing up the hank greenberg case, andso e that he had a victory when he was able to have an appeals court look at the fraud charges thatliot spitzer has thrown out. the new question is is the martin act constitutional? i'm wondering what you feel about this martin act, and whether or not we see a real big impact, if in fact this martin act is ruled or deemed unconstitutional. what does that mean for this case and other cases like it? >> certainly if it was deemed unconstitutional, you take away what has been a very powerful weapon for new york attorneys general for some time. certainly that act has been expanded in it's reach beyond the original purpose which was to get it boiler room operations into a comprehensive financial institutions regulatory statute. so if it is declared unconstitutional, yes, that's an important result. >> all right, we will be watching that. thank you for being on the program and for your insights. >> that was terrific, what a fascinating guy he is. we have about 13 minutes left of the trading d

hank greenberg is with aarp and thank you very much for being with us. aarp has called proposed rate hikes unfair, unacceptable. why? >> i think it's bottom line is that there is no reason to add costs to existing customers now. they have really weathered -- no pun intended -- a terrific amount of inconvenience and this isn't the time to be asking for additional funds. in fact, the communication part has been perhaps the worst part of all that pepco has done. we have heard mostly from our aarp members that they're upset with the fact that lack of communication. if you have a storm and tell everyone your power will be back on in a week, that's not really telling them very much at all. in fact, it's not helpful. it's woefully inadequate. they need to step up their own game before we add more money. >> let's hear what thomas graham told our gary nurenberg the reason why they still believe the rate hike is necessary. >> we've invested millions of dollars to improve reliability for our customers. it's an investment we make in the regulatory pack. there's a re

. >> hank greenberg's accounting was fraudulent. house company -- >> come on. you can't say fraudulent. there's no indictment. you can't just throw around the word fraud! >> here -- >> more fallout from elliott pitser's appearance. there's more to this story. find out what it is right here on "closing bell." in every way, shape, and form. it's my dream vehicle. on a day to day basis, i am not using gas. my round trip is approximately 40 miles to work. head on home, stop at the grocery store, whatever else that i need to do -- still don't have to use gas. i'm never at the gas station unless i want some coffee. it's the best thing ever. as a matter of fact, i'm taking my savings so that i can go to hawaii. ♪ you won't just find us online, you'll also find us in person, with dedicated support teams at over 500 branches nationwide. so when you call or visit, you can ask for a name you know. because personal service starts with a real person. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. our support teams are nearby, ready to help. it's no wonder

i for one thing that hank greenberg was hustled out too prematurely at aig.us. not to get you worked up on that david. >> won't go down that road right now, jeffrey. >> the boards look for a masonic figure, a savior from the outside in a misguided effort thinking that the cameras go away. the investigations continue. it's not going to take off the government, the media and the financial industry pressure on when's going on here and the libor issue, if there's a price fixing issue and suggested here, it's a much larger issue. >> clearly, jeffrey, the board is doing one would assume what it feels it has to do and perhaps knows more than we do in terms of what they're hearing from government officials and regulators. i mean, would you agree with that or -- yeah. you like to believe that. yeah? >> you like to believe that but to this day nobody that we could put on the show could tell us that the siemens board didn't act prematurely. he's very successful as the ceo as alcoa in difficult times and yet he's led, you know, a great personal and corporate resilience.