The Bailout Reunion Trial

Long before the pioneering reality TV program The People’s Court began adjudicating whose dog bit whom, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims acquired the nickname “the people’s court.” Created in 1855, the specialized claims court hears suits seeking damages from the government. Its current marquee case—Maurice Greenberg’s attack on the 2008 bailout of American International Group—is likely to erode whatever populist ambience still attaches to the Washington tribunal.

The dapper, 89-year-old Greenberg goes by the folksy moniker “Hank,” but he once personified the financial plutocracy. As chief executive officer of giant insurer AIG, he accrued vast power and personal wealth. Then, in 2005, he was ousted from AIG amid an accounting scandal. Ever since, he’s sought to restore his reputation with a legal and public-relations offensive against various antagonists. In his claims court action, Greenberg, who owned about 11 percent of AIG through his Starr International when taxpayers bailed it out, alleges that the terms of the rescue cheated him and other shareholders out of $25 billion.