A New York judge threw out a defamation lawsuit filed by former American International Group Inc. chief Maurice “Hank” Greenberg against former state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, ending a seven-year court battle.
The two men have been rivals for years, dating to when Mr. Spitzer pursued fraud claims against the financial-services industry during his tenure as New York attorney general from 1999 to 2006.
Mr. Greenberg, now 95 years old, sued Mr. Spitzer in state Supreme Court in Putnam County in 2013. Some of the allegedly defamatory statements in question occurred during Mr. Spitzer’s 2012 television appearance on the CNBC program “The Closing Bell.”
“You know, let’s deal with reality here,” Mr. Spitzer said to host Maria Bartiromo, according to court documents. “Hank Greenberg’s accounting was fraudulent. His company threw him out.”
In 2017, Mr. Greenberg settled civil-fraud allegations brought in 2005 by Mr. Spitzer’s office during his tenure as attorney general. In a news release at the time, the attorney general’s office said Mr. Greenberg had admitted to participating in fraudulent transactions; a lawyer for Mr. Greenberg said the former AIG chief “is not acknowledging anything improper.” Mr. Greenberg left AIG in 2005 as a probe by Mr. Spitzer was under way.
