Paul Braithwaite of Emag said as a result of this, the scope of the compensation of the eventual "ex-gratia" scheme being devised by Sir John Chadwick would now be much wider.

BBC: High Court backs Equitable plan

"Treasury's failure to discover the scope and scale of AIG's executive compensation obligations ... potentially resulted in a missed opportunity to avoid the explosively controversial events and created considerable public and congressional concern over the retention payments, " the report says.

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