Editing American International Group (AIG)

Origins and Early History of AIG

American International Group traces its roots to 1919, when [[Cornelius Vander Starr]], a young American entrepreneur, founded American Asiatic Underwriters (AAU) in Shanghai, China. Starr’s venture began as an insurance agency selling policies for American companies in Asia, capitalizing on the region’s economic growth. By the 1920s, Starr expanded operations, establishing American International Underwriters (AIU) to underwrite insurance globally. In 1926, he founded Asia Life Insurance Company, one of the first to sell life insurance to Chinese citizens, leveraging Shanghai’s status as a global financial hub.

After World War II, Starr relocated his operations to New York due to the Communist takeover in China, rebranding his conglomerate as AIG in 1967. Under Starr’s leadership, and later [[Maurice “Hank” Greenberg]], AIG grew into one of the world’s largest insurance and financial services companies, managing vast investment capital and operating in over 130 countries by the 2000s. Its business model emphasized offshore operations, reinsurance, and financial innovation, which later raised questions about its role in global intelligence and covert activities.

Henry Kissinger, a close associate of Hank Greenberg, also played a significant role in these efforts, serving as chairman of AIG's advisory board starting in 1987. In 1992, AIG became the first foreign insurer granted a license to operate in Shanghai in over 40 years, effectively returning to its origins. Greenberg was a long-time confidant of Ronald Reagan's CIA Director William Casey, who reportedly attempted to recruit Greenberg as his deputy at the CIA, an offer Greenberg declined. Greenberg's extensive network also included prominent roles in influential foreign policy organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. 

Ties to the OSS and CIA

AIG’s connections to U.S. intelligence agencies, particularly the OSS and CIA, stem from Starr’s activities during World War II and the Cold War. Starr, a former military intelligence officer, joined the OSS, the precursor to the CIA, during the war. His insurance companies in Asia served as cover for OSS agents, providing a legitimate front for intelligence operations in Japanese-occupied territories. 

In 1943, Starr collaborated with William "Wild Bill" Donovan, the chief of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA. Together, they formed a special "insurance intelligence unit" within the OSS. This unit leveraged Starr's extensive international network and connections in China, including his Shanghai newspaper, to gather wartime intelligence on Nazi Germany and Japan. 

Starr’s network of insurance offices across Asia and the Pacific became nodes in the OSS’s wartime intelligence apparatus, facilitating espionage and resistance against Japanese forces. The OSS even shared office space with Starr's operations in New York City. This intelligence gathering involved identifying factories for sabotage, bridges to blow up, and even "pothole counts for roads used for invasion." 

After the war, Starr’s companies, now under the AIG umbrella, allegedly maintained ties to the CIA. According to Operation Gladio by Paul L. Williams, AIG evolved from American International Underwriters (AIU), which had “suspected ties to the CIA in Southeast Asia.” These ties were facilitated by Starr’s relationships with OSS veterans, including Paul Helliwell, a key figure in CIA financial operations. Helliwell, who set up offshore banks like Castle Bank & Trust, worked with Starr to establish [[Underwriters Bank Limited]], a Bahamas-based entity linked to CIA money-laundering networks.

AIG’s general counsel, [[Duncan Lee]], further solidified these connections. Lee, an OSS veteran and special assistant to William Donovan, later served as counsel for the CIA’s Civil Air Transport, a front for covert operations in Asia. Shockingly, Lee was later exposed as a Soviet mole within the OSS, highlighting the murky world of intelligence AIG operated in. Former CIA Director [[William Colby]], in his memoirs, acknowledged AIG’s role in providing cover for CIA operations, particularly in Southeast Asia, where its insurance offices masked agent activities.

The China Lobby Connection

The China Lobby, a powerful group of American politicians, businessmen, and military figures advocating support for Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government against Mao Zedong’s Communists, intersected with AIG through Starr’s operations in China. Starr’s insurance ventures in Shanghai aligned with U.S. interests in supporting the Nationalists, and his relationships with Chiang and the KMT were documented in Operation Gladio. Starr provided funds to the KMT, which controlled opium production in Laos and Thailand, a trade the CIA later leveraged to finance covert operations.

AIG’s early operations in China positioned it as a conduit for U.S. influence in the region, aligning with the China Lobby’s goal of countering communism. Starr’s financial support for the KMT and his OSS activities illustrates there was a  relationship. The Lobby’s influence waned after the Communist victory in 1949, but AIG’s continued presence in Asia, particularly in Hong Kong and Taiwan, maintained its strategic relevance to U.S. intelligence.

Involvement in Intelligence Networks and Military Operations

AIG’s alleged involvement in covert operations like Operation Gladio and Operation Condor, as well as regime change efforts, is supported by circumstantial evidence and declassified documents. Below is an analysis of these connections:

Operation Gladio

Operation Gladio was a NATO-CIA initiative to create “stay-behind” networks in Europe to resist a potential Soviet invasion. These networks, active from the 1950s to the 1990s, involved clandestine armies trained by U.S. and British special forces, often linked to right-wing extremists and former fascists. Paul L. Williams argues that AIG’s offshore financial networks, particularly through Underwriters Bank Limited, provided initial funding for Gladio units, using proceeds from smuggled SS morphine and counterfeit British banknotes.

While direct evidence tying AIG to Gladio’s operations is limited, its financial infrastructure, including offshore banks and reinsurance companies, aligned with the CIA’s need for untraceable funds. For example, Helliwell’s Castle Bank, linked to AIG through shared directors, was a known conduit for CIA black funds. Gladio’s Italian branch, exposed in 1990 by Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, was implicated in terrorist attacks like the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing, orchestrated to discredit left-wing movements. AIG’s role, if any, would have been financial rather than operational, channeling funds through its global network.

Operation Condor

Operation Condor, formalized in 1975, was a U.S.-backed campaign of political repression by South American dictatorships to eliminate left-wing opponents through assassinations, torture, and disappearances. AIG’s alleged ties to Condor are primarily through its reinsurance operations and financial networks in the region, particularly in Argentina and Chile.

The most notable connection is AIG’s creation of Coral Reinsurance Company in Barbados, detailed in One Nation Under Blackmail by Whitney Webb. Coral, set up in the 1980s with Goldman Sachs’ assistance, was controlled by AIG but obscured through proxies like the Arkansas Development Finance Authority (ADFA) and Chicago property magnate Samuel Zell. Coral’s purpose was to offload AIG’s financial risks, but its offshore structure and ties to intelligence-linked figures like Jackson Stephens, who facilitated ADFA’s involvement, suggest it served as a conduit for covert funds. Stephens’ connections to the CIA and his role in financing Contra operations in Nicaragua further implicate AIG’s network in Condor-era activities.

Declassified CIA documents confirm U.S. awareness of Condor’s precursor activities by 1974, with the agency supplying communications gear to regimes like Pinochet’s Chile. Manuel Contreras, head of Chile’s DINA and a paid CIA asset from 1974 to 1977, was central to Condor’s operations, including the 1976 assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C. While AIG is not directly named in these documents, its financial presence in South America, through subsidiaries like National Union Fire and Home Insurance, which insured firms linked to Condor regimes, raises questions about its role in laundering funds for these operations.

Regime Change and Coups

AIG’s global reach and financial capabilities made it a potential asset in U.S.-led regime change efforts. The CIA’s history of orchestrating coups, detailed in United States Involvement in Regime Change, includes operations in Guatemala (1954), Iran (1953), and Chile (1973). AIG’s insurance and reinsurance operations in these regions provided a plausible cover for intelligence activities, though direct evidence is often classified.

Guatemala (1954): The CIA’s Operation PBSuccess ousted President Jacobo Árbenz, partly to protect United Fruit Company’s interests. AIG, through its Latin American operations, insured U.S. businesses in the region, potentially facilitating financial flows for covert operations. No declassified documents explicitly link AIG to PBSuccess, but its presence in Central America aligns with CIA needs.

Chile (1973): The CIA’s Project FUBELT, which culminated in Allende’s overthrow, involved $8 million in covert funding, as revealed in The Pinochet File. AIG’s operations in Chile, including insuring U.S.-owned copper mines, positioned it to support U.S. economic interests. Coral Reinsurance’s later ties to ADFA and Stephens, who had business dealings in South America, suggest AIG’s financial network could have channeled funds for Condor-related activities post-coup.

Iran (1953): The CIA’s Operation Ajax removed Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh to protect Western oil interests. AIG’s Middle Eastern operations, though nascent, provided a financial foothold that could have supported CIA logistics, though evidence is circumstantial.

AIG’s role in these coups would likely have been indirect, providing financial infrastructure rather than operational support. Its offshore banks and reinsurance companies, like Coral, were ideal for moving untraceable funds, a tactic the CIA used extensively in covert operations.

Connections to USAID and NED

AIG’s interactions with USAID and the NED are less documented but plausible given its financial ties to U.S. government initiatives and intelligence-linked figures. USAID and NED, often criticized as fronts for U.S. soft power and regime change, fund programs to promote democracy and development, sometimes overlapping with CIA objectives.

USAID: AIG’s involvement with USAID is primarily through its financial operations in developing countries. For example, One Nation Under Blackmail notes that Park-on-Meter, an Arkansas company linked to ADFA and AIG’s Coral Reinsurance, received USAID contracts for projects in Belize, suggesting a nexus between AIG’s financial network and USAID’s economic programs. USAID’s role in promoting U.S. interests, as critiqued in Secret Programs Hurt Foreign Aid Efforts, aligns with AIG’s ability to insure and finance projects in strategic regions.

NED: The NED, established in 1983 with CIA involvement, funds pro-democracy groups to influence foreign governments. AIG’s global financial reach and ties to intelligence figures like Greenberg, who declined a CIA deputy director role under Reagan, position it as a potential partner in NED’s activities. Stephen Kinzer’s 2021 articles highlight NED’s collaboration with the CIA and USAID to support insurgent forces, a role AIG’s financial infrastructure could have supported through offshore accounts or insurance for NED-funded projects. However, no declassified documents directly confirm AIG’s involvement with NED.

"Coral Reinsurance Company, which had been set up in the offshore haven of Barbados. Reinsurance is basically insurance for insurance companies: it allows company A (in this case, the primary insurance firm) to offload portions of its risk onto company B (the reinsurance company). The reasons for this are multifold. It offers a buffer or protection for the insurance company from risks, while also - and perhaps more importantly - allowing insurance companies to engage in expanded business practices that might otherwise have been blocked by government regulations requiring particular asset to risk ratios. Often, insurance companies will set up their own reinsurance companies for this exact purpose. In order to hide the ownership structure, offshore havens are selected to create these companies.

This is exactly how Coral functioned. It took debt and other risks off the books of its parent, though this parent was hidden through proxies. On the other side of this firewall, in actual control of Coral, was American International Group (AIG), the international insurance and finance monolith that, during the 2008 financial crisis, was bailed out by the US government to the tune of $180 billion dollars. In the Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published in 2011, AIG was identified as having a lengthy history of engaging in overly risky ventures, frequently carried out with little to no hedging or protection.116 AIGs creation of Coral is just one example of this.

In order to hide its connection to Coral, AIG had called upon the resources of Goldman Sachs, which in turn did the actual legwork in settingup the reinsurance company. Overseeing this operation was the head of Goldmans stock and bonding trading department, Robert Rubin." 

Key Figures and Intelligence Networks

Several individuals linked to AIG were deeply embedded in intelligence and military networks:

Cornelius Vander Starr: AIG’s founder, OSS operative, and KMT financier, Starr established the company’s intelligence ties. His work with Helliwell and the OSS positioned AIG as a cover for covert operations.

Maurice Greenberg: AIG’s CEO from 1968 to 2005, Greenberg was offered the CIA deputy director role by Reagan, indicating his proximity to intelligence circles. His leadership expanded AIG’s global financial network, including Coral Reinsurance, which intersected with CIA-linked figures like Stephens. Greenberg’s 2002 role in a Council on Foreign Relations investigation into terrorist financing further underscores his influence in national security.

[[Paul Helliwell]]: A CIA operative and OSS veteran, Helliwell’s offshore banks, including Castle Bank and Underwriters Bank Limited, were linked to AIG and used for CIA money laundering. His collaboration with Starr in the 1960s tied AIG to covert financial networks.

[[Jackson Stephens]]: An Arkansas financier, Stephens connected AIG’s Coral Reinsurance to ADFA and Contra funding, implicating AIG in intelligence-backed operations in Central America. His ties to the Bush family and BCCI further embed him in global covert networks.

Military Overt and Covert Activities

AIG’s financial infrastructure supported U.S. military and covert objectives, particularly in Southeast Asia and Latin America:

Vietnam War: AIG insured U.S. assets in South Vietnam and provided cover for CIA operations, as noted in The Politics of Heroin. Its ties to figures like Nguyen Cao Ky, implicated in heroin smuggling, suggest complicity in CIA-protected drug networks.

Latin America: AIG’s operations in Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia during Condor aligned with U.S. support for military dictatorships. Coral Reinsurance’s links to ADFA and Stephens indicate a role in funding covert operations, possibly including the 1980 Bolivian “Cocaine Coup,” where Gladio operative Stefano Delle Chiaie and Klaus Barbie collaborated.

Afghanistan: AIG’s ownership of a large fleet of cargo planes, noted in Crossing the Rubicon, suggests potential logistical support for CIA operations during the Afghan-Soviet War, though evidence is speculative.

Conclusion:

The establishment narrative portrays AIG as a legitimate insurance giant, with its intelligence ties downplayed as historical artifacts. However, declassified documents and investigative accounts challenge this view, revealing a pattern of financial support for CIA operations. AIG’s history is inseparable from U.S. intelligence and military objectives, from its OSS origins to its alleged role in Cold War covert operations. Founded by Starr, an OSS operative with KMT ties, AIG provided cover and financial infrastructure for CIA activities in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. 

Its offshore banks and reinsurance companies, like Coral, facilitated money laundering for operations like Gladio and Condor, while figures like Greenberg and Stephens bridged AIG to intelligence networks. Connections to USAID and NED, though less documented, align with AIG’s role in supporting U.S. soft power. While definitive evidence is obscured by classified records, the available data paints AIG as a key player in the shadowy nexus of finance, intelligence, and covert warfare.

From Paul Williams book:

"Charles Jocelyn Hambro of the Hambros Bank. The firm, which was registered in Panama, employed mob figure Sonny Fassoulis, an international arms dealer, to provide "services" to General Chiang's National Army. The primary function of the WCC ([[World Commerce Corporation]]) was to buy and sell surplus US weapons and munitions to foreign underworld groups, including the KMT and the Italian Mafias. 

In exchange for the arms, the KMT provided the opium required to create the CIA as the US postwar intelligence agency. The opium was flown from the mountains of Burma and Laos by Civil Air Transport to Bangkok, where the planes were emptied and loaded with for the return flight to the poppy fields. In Bangkok, General Phao Sriyanonda, director general of Thailand's national police, employed his officers to load the product on the freighters of a mysterious shipping company called Sea Supply, Inc., a CIA front run by Paul Helliwell, who now served at the Burmese consulate in Miami." 

In 1954, British customs in Singapore stated that Bangkok had become the major center for opium trafficking in Southeast Asia. The drug trade became so lucrative that Thailand abandoned the anti-opium campaign it had launched in 1948. 

General Phao developed a close friendship with Donovan, who had been appointed US ambassador to Thailand. Indeed, Wild Bill became so enthralled with Phao that he nominated the Thai general for a Legion of Merit award. Although he did not win the award, Phao, by 1953, had received $35 million in aid from the CIA, including gifts of several naval vessels and cargo planes used to transport drugs to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Marseilles. These were given with the expectation that the KMT would launch guerrilla raids into China. 

The WCC and Sea Supply, like Civil Air Transport (CAT), emerged from a subculture within the intelligence community of extremely wealthy and well-connected lawyers and businessmen who, at the time, were not part of any official government agency. This subculture would eventually give rise to a network of banks (including the Bank of Credit and Commerce International) and proprietary businesses (including the American International Group of C. V. Starr), which were created to support and conceal the flow of money from the heroin trade."

From Whitney Webb's book, One Nation Under Blackmail:

"...the Agency (CIA) had assigned Groves such tasks as organizing coups, funding political parties, and cleaning dirty money. Money flowed into the Castle Bank not only from International Diversified but also from a host of underworld figures, including Moe Dalitz, the racketeer who became known as "Mr. Las Vegas," and Morris Kleinman, and Samuel A. Tucker, who operated the gambling syndicate in Ohio and the Desert Inn in Las Vegas.

Castle Bank & Trust was joined at the hip to Mercantile Bank and Trust, another CIA operation that was set up in the Bahamas by Helliwell. Castle owned a large block of stock in Mercantile, and vice versa, and both became principal depositors in each other's operation. In addition, the banks shared most of the same directors. Money flowed back and forth in a bewildering array of transactions that included International Diversified. Mercantile and Castle interlocked with Underwriters Bank, Ltd., another firm that Helliwell created in the Bahamas. The majority shareholder of this firm was the American insurance conglomerate American International Underwriters Corp.

(AIUC), which was established as part of the insurance empire headed by former OSS agent C. V. Starr, and evolved into the giant multinational AIG (American International Group). AIUC, according to Peter Dale Scott, author of The American War Machine, "was an insurance conglomerate with suspected ties to the CIA in Southeast Asia." 

In 1976, Mercantile was closed by the Bahamian Government after investors discovered that the bank's holdings were worthless. This came as a surprise to the shareholders since Price Waterhouse, the prestigious accounting firm, had certified a few months before the collapse that Mercantile possessed $25.1 billion in assets. Unfortunately, these assets were alleged "loans" given to unidentified individuals. The money vanished into the agency's black hole."

One last connection:

Jerome Hauer's Roles and Affiliations:

Prior to 9/11:

In the late 1990s (1996 to 2000), he served as the head of New York's Office of Emergency Management (OEM). By February 2001, he was a "senior advisor to the Secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services, for national security and emergency management." Concurrently, in February 2001, he was the Managing Director of Kroll, Inc. (formerly Kroll, O’Gara, Eisenhardt), which is a notorious CIA front used to park CIA agents in need of cover. Officially, its a private investigative and security firm. This role, given Kroll's involvement in executive protection for U.S. government officials (including the president), would necessitate "close liaison with the Secret Service."

Kroll's corporate staff included high-level retired law enforcement, Secret Service, CIA, FBI, and other intelligence personnel. Kroll also provided "substantial services to the Saudi government." Parr ownership of Kroll was acquired by the American International Group (AIG) in the late 1990s. Just prior to 9/11, AIG buys a known CIA front company...Kroll. Kroll's Board of Directors included Frank G. Wisner Jr., also an AIG board member and son of one of the CIA's creators, Frank Wisner Sr. Yes, the famed 'Grand Wurlitzer' himself; his son is on the board of both AIG and Kroll.

Hauer's other corporate affiliations included SAIC, Battelle, and DynCorp (now CSC-DynCorp). SAIC is a known CIA front as well, Battelle has multiple 'former' CIA agents on staff, spent several years as the largest overall government contactor working with HHS and DARPA to name a few and we all know of DynCorp's ties to CIA, human trafficking and other nefarious activities.

He also served on the board of Hollis-Eden, a company that benefited significantly from "Project Bioshield." Project BioShield, formally known as the Project BioShield Act, was enacted by the United States Congress in 2004 to provide $5 billion for purchasing vaccines that would be used in the event of a bioterrorist attack. This ten-year program aimed to acquire medical countermeasures to biological, chemical, radiological, and nuclear agents for civilian use. The Act was signed into law on July 21, 2004, by President George W. Bush, as part of a broader strategy to defend America against the threat of weapons of mass destruction. The program, administered by HHS’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), allocated $5.6 billion over ten years. More money laundering to big pharma.

Hauer participated in the June 2001 Dark Winter exercise, simulating a smallpox attack, and the 2003 TopOff 2 exercise, where he played FEMA’s head (Crossing the Rubicon, p. 423). These wargames, designed to test bioterrorism preparedness, involved intelligence and security agencies, fueling speculation about foreknowledge of 9/11 or anthrax attacks. 

Hauer was instrumental in shifting New York City’s emergency preparedness from the police department to a new agency. He oversaw the creation of a $13 million crisis command center on the 23rd floor of 7 World Trade Center (WTC 7), unveiled in June 1999. This decision was controversial due to WTC’s prior targeting in the 1993 bombing and its proximity to the Twin Towers. A memo revealed by Fox News’ Chris Wallace indicated Hauer preferred a Brooklyn location, but Giuliani insisted on a site within walking distance of City Hall. On 9/11, the WTC 7 command center was evacuated and destroyed when the building collapsed at approximately 5:25 p.m. Hauer’s foresight in developing bioterrorism response plans and surveillance systems for unusual health events, implemented during his OEM tenure, proved critical in the city’s response to the attacks and subsequent anthrax crisis.

On September 11, 2001:

Hauer was serving as a "senior advisor to the Secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services, for national security and emergency management," and also as "Managing Director of Kroll, Inc." Having just left the NY's Office of Emergency Management.

He was a "very close friend" of John O'Neill, an FBI agent focused on counterterrorism who became the Director of Security for the World Trade Center in the summer of 2001; just prior to the 'attack' of 9/11. Hauer had drinks with O'Neill on the night of September 10, 2001. The night before the 'event'. O’Neill perished in the WTC collapse on 9/11, and their friendship has been scrutinized for potential intelligence connections, given O’Neill’s prior warnings about al-Qaeda threats. This is documented in Crossing the Rubicon (p. 423)


On the evening of 9/11, Hauer advised Vice President Dick Cheney and his staff to take the antibiotic Cipro as a precaution against anthrax, days before the anthrax letters were mailed. This decision, reported by The Washington Post, has fueled speculation about foreknowledge of the anthrax attacks.

On 9/11, Hauer appeared on national television, interviewed by Dan Rather, where he supported the emerging official narrative that the WTC towers collapsed due to fire from the plane crashes, dismissing the need for pre-positioned explosives. 

Post-9/11 Activities and Influence:

In June 2002, Kroll (a CIA front) purchased [[Convar Systeme Deutschland GmbH]], a German firm hired after September 11 to recover data from damaged computer hard drives found in the WTC wreckage. In his role as a bioterror agent/consultant/U.S. government official, Hauer had a "direct hand in making decisions about elevated threat levels from the Department of Homeland Security and the Centers for Disease Control."

He served on the board of Hollis-Eden, a "prime beneficiary of the multi-billion dollar Project Bioshield," a 2004 law that granted "huge vaccine and research contracts to the pharmaceutical industry." In 2003, in a wargame exercise (TopOff2) in Seattle and Chicago, Hauer played the role of the head of FEMA.

He became the "go-to guy for every epidemiological or biowarfare issue since September 11," including anthrax, smallpox, West Nile Virus, and SARS.
During his time as head of New York's OEM, Hauer had a confrontation with Steven Hatfill, the FBI's chief person-of-interest in the anthrax cases. Hatfill reportedly "disclosed too much information about methods of biological attack," and this confrontation was reported in The Washington Post. Hauer’s confrontation with Hatfill, combined with his BioShield ties, has been interpreted as evidence of involvement in anthrax-related cover-ups or profiteering. However, his actions align with his role as a bioterror advisor, and Hatfill was later cleared of anthrax suspicions.








Sources:

One Nation Under Blackmail: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime that Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein, Volume Two by Webb (2022)

Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance between the Vatican, the CIA, and the Mafia by Williams (2015)

Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil by Ruppert (2004)