Topic “AIG”

For almost two years, Goldman Sachs has been spinning what many believed was a far-fetched tale.

Goldman has maintained that it had entirely hedged its exposure to the American International Group before A.I.G. collapsed in September 2008. Goldman’s chief financial officer, David Viniar, has repeated over and over again: “We had no direct exposure.”

With the financial system on the verge of collapse in late 2008, a group of troubled banks doled out more than $2 billion in bonuses and other payments to their highest earners. Now, the federal authority on banker pay says that nearly 80 percent of that sum was unmerited.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., already under scrutiny from regulators, faced new questions from a congressional commission about whether it aggressively marked down the value of its mortgage-securities positions to benefit a bet Goldman made against the mortgage market.

A bipartisan panel reviewing causes of the financial crisis grilled Goldman executives about valuations of mortgage assets the Wall Street firm provided American International Group Inc. and other trading partners in the mortgage crisis of 2007 and 2008.

WASHINGTON — Reversing its oft-repeated position that it was acting only on behalf of its clients in its exotic dealings with the American International Group, Goldman Sachs now says that it also used its own money to make secret wagers against the U.S. housing market.

The Congressional Oversight Panel on Thursday lambasted the government’s decision to rescue American International Group in September 2008, saying the bailout continues to have “a poisonous effect on the marketplace.”

The panel, which was created to monitor the emergency funds disbursed under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, said that the bailout initiated under the Bush administration reinforced the idea that certain businesses were too big too fail.

After taxpayers rescued American International Group from the brink of collapse, the U.S. government moved to protect its investment by appointing directors and special trustees to oversee the company.