It's good to be da' king. Since AIG is owned by the US government, who let this one pass through? Was it really that difficult to see the public relations issue with this? As enthusiastic as I am about taking vacations, in this circumstance he should have simply waited until after his time at his villa to avoid any new controversy. It does leave you wondering what's next with this mess.
First came an $85bn government bailout. Then a storm over bonuses of $165m for senior executives. Now insurance firm AIG is in hot water again – because its newly appointed boss is spending most of his first month working from his sprawling villa overlooking Croatia's Adriatic coast.
Robert Benmosche, ex-head of the US insurer MetLife, became chief executive of AIG on 10 August but went on holiday just days later, to oversee the grape harvest at his vineyards to the north of Dubrovnik.
The 65-year-old executive's absence from the insurer's headquarters so early in his tenure has surprised Wall Street. But tracked down by a Reuters reporter yesterday, Benmosche was unapologetic.
Dressed in flip-flops and shorts, he insisted he was getting a good deal of work done: "People criticise me for being on vacation. I actually started work a week before I was actually supposed to."
