American International Group Inc. will again restate its financials as part of an ongoing internal probe of its accounting practices. The latest change is actually an understatement of consolidated results by $500 million -- forcing a restatement of the insurance giant's 2002, 2003 and 2004 fiscal years.
An AIG spokesman said that further investigation by PricewaterhouseCoopers uncovered the additional errors, and that the problems were related to accounting for derivatives and related assets. The company will also restate some financial data for 2000 and 2001 and quarterly financial information for 2004 and the first half of 2005.
The company also said that it will delay its third quarter earnings report until next Monday, but did release preliminary estimates that included $1.57 billion in losses from Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters.AIG restated five years of results in May, reducing shareholders' equity by more than $2 billion. The company is also being investigated by federal and state regulators for its reinsurance activities. Longtime chairman and chief executive Maurice ''Hank'' Greenberg was removed in May and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed a suit against AIG and Greenberg that alleged the company had resorted to accounting fraud to boost its financial results and stock price.
