A SETTLEMENT to be signed in front of a New York judge as The Economist went to press on February 16th marked the end of years of attritional legal warfare. It was less clear who had won: the state of New York or Maurice (Hank) Greenberg, the now 91-year-old former chief executive of AIG, once the world's largest insurer, but saved by a government bail-out in 2008. Eric Schneiderman, New York's attorney-general, had seemed in little doubt when he issued a surprise statement on February 10th. Hank Greenberg had admitted "to initiating, participating and approving two fraudulent transactions...that fundamentally misrepresented AIG's finances." He had agreed to pay a $9m fine.
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